Arts, Culture and Creative Economy

Living an almost car-free life (and what does that have to do with the arts?)

2013-12-13T18:50:00.000-05:00

I recently watched a video of a talk by Gabe Klein at the 2013 Aspen Ideas Festival about the new world of transportation planning. He is the head of transportation in Chicago, previously headed the transportation office in DC, and before that was a VP at ZipCar, and it got me thinking about the changing modes of transportation in my own life. In Philadelphia, I was one of many people who lived without owning a car, living downtown and walking to work and most places I needed to get to. Most places I could not get to on foot, I used mass transit, and very occasionally a taxi. When for work reasons I needed to get somewhere best reached by car I was able to draw on a Mayor's Office pool car, and for personal use when a car was needed I used ZipCar. I used a bicycle mostly for recreation but occasionally for transportation as well, at which time I did take advantage of and appreciate Philadelphia's relatively new bike lane program. As one of the nation's most walkable big cities, with one of the highest bicycle commuting rates, this was not all that unusual in Philly.

Now in Denver, we are living as a one-car family, which many folks here are astonished at, especially given that we have a two-year old. But Denver is a surprisingly urban city (and increasingly so) that is very easy to navigate without owning a car, depending on where you choose to live. Living in the city, only about 2 1/2 miles from downtown where my office is, I am able to commute to work most days using Denver's B-cycle bike-sharing program. For an $80/year membership I essentially get unlimited under-30-minute rides through the program. If I go over 30 minutes (which I have never done), I would pay $1 for the next 30 minutes. There are bike-share stations virtually everywhere I have ever have to get to. I wish the one near my house was a bit closer (it is about 5 blocks away) but that is nit-picking. Not only is this good for the environment (and our finances by avoiding the expense of a second car), it offers great regular exercise and promotes health and wellness. When time and weather allow, the distance is close enough that walking is actually also an option, especially since about a third of the trip can be accomplished via the free 16th Street Mall shuttle - another great Denver sustainable transportation asset. I have become in short order a major champion - and user - of bike sharing.

And when, like in Philadelphia, a car is needed, I now use Car2Go (which has been in Denver for about 6 months), which I find for me a better fit than ZipCar. Even though I still have my ZipCar membership I have yet to use it in Denver. With Car2Go you use and pay for the car ONE-WAY. If I bike to work, but then need a car in the middle of the day to get to a meeting, I use Car2Go, pick up a car near my office, drive to the meeting, park the car, and I am done. When the meeting is over, I can either pick up the nearest Car2Go (which might be the same one if nobody else has claimed it) or depending on the location could walk or use B-cycle to wherever my destination is. Or if it is the end of the day, my wife might pick me up in the car on her way home, though she works just a couple of blocks from where we live, so this generally only happens if she is out and about in the car anyway for work or errands). Some days I will actually use my own car for the day, but that is increasingly rare, and generally when I have several back-to-back destinations that are very far apart.

Because it is so different from the usual car sharing programs like ZipCar, here is how Car2Go works: You sign up for the program and register a payment method, then you get a plastic card that has a chip embedded that allows the cars to recognize you. You check an "app" you have downloaded, and it shows you where all the nearby cars are. (They are all the little Smart ForTwo cars; the company is owned by Daimler, which makes the cars...) You pick the most convenient car and it reserves it for you for up to 30-minutes. You walk to the car - which in the core of the city is rarely more than few blocks away, sometimes just a few feet. Cars can be parked for free in almost any legal City parking spot. When you get to the car you hold your card to the window-mounted reader, it recognizes you and unlocks the doors. After answering a few questions and putting in a code on a data screen (that also serves as a GPS system), you start the car and drive to your destination. When you get to your destination you park the car, log out, hold the card to the windshield reader, and you are done. The charge currently is $.38/minute. If your drive took 10 minutes, you are billed $3.80, 20 minutes - $7.60. If you want to make sure the same car is available when you are finished with your appointment, you can take the ignition key with you and lock the car without "checking out". You just get charged for the time the car is waiting for your return ($13.99/hour max).

It takes some planning and some thought, but frankly this multi-system approach to transportation - walking, bike-share, car-share and only an occasional personal car trip - is very doable. And this is not just for 20-30 year-olds, an age bracket I am long removed from. Though it is true that Millennials as a generation are statistically much less enamored of our American car culture and are using alternative transportation, and living in cities where this lifestyle works best, at increasingly high rates.

An image from Philadelphia's artist-designed bike rack competition

So what does all this have to do with the arts? We must ensure that our programs and facilities are accessible to patrons using alternative modes of transportation! Are there enough bike racks at your theatre, museum or other type of cultural facility? Are there sufficient bike-sharing stations? If necessary could you sponsor the installation of more racks, a bike corral, or additional bike sharing capacity? Can you work to ensure Car2Go availability (or even taxi or Uber availability) when people leave the theatre or other evening event? Could you organize car-pooling from neighborhoods where there are many audience members, perhaps creating a matching area on your website? In Philadelphia we worked to launch an artist-designed bike rack program to add bike rack capacity while also adding to the city's public art collection and at least one of the arts was sponsored by a museum, and placed there to accommodate more bicycle transported visitors. Planning for easy use of alternative transportation should be a key part of cultural institution planning, and community availability of multiple transportation options should be part of your communications strategy as well. If your facility is largely accessible only by car, in a world where more and more people (and, yes, especially younger people) don't own cars you are adding yet another major roadblock to your efforts to expand your audiences. So don't just think about how to add a new parking lot or garage, think about how to facilitate those NOT driving their own car, and make it as easy as possible for them. You will help build younger audiences, and you might even get me too!

What Does "Effective Altruism" Mean For The Arts?

2013-11-19T15:35:00.000-05:00

Winslow Homer's Lost on the Grand Banks, for which Bill Gates paid $36 million in 1998

A recent interview in the Financial Times with Bill Gates, that was widely quoted and shared in the media, including this piece in Hyperallergic, reported his equating of giving to a museum with blinding people. Seriously. Essentially he was citing the work of ethicist Peter Singer, whose work has fostered a new "effective altruism" movement, and posing the question that if a significant gift could prevent illnesses that lead to blindness, was giving that money instead to build a new wing of a museum effectively blinding people? [Gates] questions why anyone would donate money to build a new wing for a museum rather than spend it on preventing illnesses that can lead to blindness. “The moral equivalent is, we’re going to take 1 per cent of the people who visit this [museum] and blind them,” he says. “Are they willing, because it has the new wing, to take that risk? Hmm, maybe this blinding thing is slightly barbaric.”

Then in the recent issue of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, a cover story (apologies to non-subscribers - this article is behind a paywall) and several sidebar stories explore the "effective altruism" movement fostered by Singer (given a big boost by a TED talk earlier this year). The story notes the growing interest in this approach to philanthropy that has a special appeal to 20-somethings. One phenomenon of this is that young people literally calculate that they could do more good making lots of money in tech or finance, living frugally and giving much of it away, than they could actually devoting their careers to the nonprofit sector. This movement also takes a rigorous look at the world's most pressing problems and the cost of solving them. If the cost of saving one life in your home town/city could save a hundred lives in India or Africa, is "giving locally" a morally selfish act? Effective altruism adherents eschew the idea of "giving with your heart" and promote the idea of giving based on a careful analysis of where funds could have the greatest human impact, And, of course, as reflected in Gates's comments, this movement takes an especially dim view of cultural philanthropy. (Mostafa Heddaya, author of the Hyperallergic piece, points out the hypocrisy of Gates's position, given his massive investment in his own 66,000 s.f. home, nicknamed "Xanadu," and his art, which includes $36 million paid for Winslow Homer's "Lost on the Grand Banks" in 1998.)

This is not the first time, of course, that donors, ethicists, and pundits have associated arts giving with "the rich funding their personal cultural enjoyment at the expense of other worthier causes." In 2007 former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, in an LA Times opinion piece, called for changes in Federal tax law to create different levels of deductibility based on how much a donation was truly serving a charitable purpose. Arts giving was not considered to qualify as fully charitable under these proposed guidelines. University giving was put into the same category as the arts. Reich's point - and he DOES make a good point - is that not enough people are giving to help the truly poor and needy. Does another $10,000 to Harvard's endowment really have the same social value as $10,000 going directly to feed the hungry?

What is scary about this trend for the arts is that "effective altruism" really resonates with young people, and it seems to make logical sense to a generation of data-driven young donors. Arts groups are already facing the challenge of how to make themselves relevant to a younger generation, many of whom have not had the benefit of a quality arts education. They also associate the arts with rich people, black tie galas, their parents and grandparents, stuffiness, "Euro-centric culture,"and grand edifices (Reich in his piece even refers to "arts palaces" as if the arts were only the province of the Czars). Much has been written about the massive multi-trillion dollar transfer of wealth we are in the midst of now, as the extraordinary wealth of many in the Boomer generation begins to be passed to their children, the Millennials. We are already seeing evidence of this next generation rejecting their parents and grandparents commitment to arts and culture, and steering their family philanthropy in different directions, often even selling their family art collection to raise more funds for philanthropy, rather than keeping it or donating it to a museum.

Don't get me wrong - there is a very good side to this movement. The developed world, America and Americans included, have not directed enough attention to solving the massive problems of the developing world. This was beautifully brought home in Tracy Kidder's moving profile of Paul Farmer and his work in Mountains Beyond Mountains. We may read heart-wrenching articles of poverty and devastation in places far away from us, but how much are we really giving to address these problems (outside of the surges generated by natural disasters like the recent Philippines tragedy)? Are we making personal sacrifices in our own lifestyle (luvurious by global standards) to dig deeper and give more? Raising awareness of the need of those parts of the world with more resources to address these challenges is beneficial. And creating a culture of philanthropy in our young people is also a wonderful and welcome phenomenon. This passionate commitment to making the world a better place is extraordinary, and I see it in my 20-something daughters as well. Finally, basing giving on some rigorous analysis of impact and effectiveness has great value.

But here is my problem. This completely dispassionate assessment of philanthropic value does not allow for a holistic approach to what makes a healthy society. If everybody gave this way, we might be solving Third World crises at the expense of fostering crises right here at home, and rampant un-checked homelessness, poverty, public health challenges in America would ultimately damage our economy (nationally and locally) thus diminishing the capacity in the long term to help abroad. Not to mention, things that are important to our souls, that are fostered through the arts (beauty, emotion, understanding of other cultures, tolerance, inspiration, joy) can be very hard to sufficiently measure in a world of purely data-driven philanthropy.

It also assumes that the arts have no social value at all and creates an artificial "either/or" decision over where to give. It must be "both/and". There is a condescending undertone to this approach as well - unintentional - that assumes somehow that poor people need only their basic needs met, that they do not have the same right as other to the beauty and inspiration of the arts. I don't need to go into here all the reasons why the arts have value - but clearly we need to do a much better job communicating this to the "effective altruists." One of the many commenters on the Hyperallergic story put it this way: "The better way to argue the point is to think about ways that art and art appreciation may have a positive impact on the world. Those effects might include liberalization, highlighting the voice of marginalized groups, promoting tolerance and compassion, and breaking rigid mindsets. This might, in turn, lead to fewer wars, reduced persecution of minority groups, and even an increased involvement in other philanthropic endeavors. Might be a stretch, but it doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility."

Years ago I remember Hildy Simmons, the former head of JP Morgan Private Bank's Global Foundations Group, talking about the need to approach philanthropy like a balanced investment portfolio, that every donor must find their own personal balance of causes, risk capital versus sustaining/operating capital, and that societally all these personal choices needed to balance out, with adequate support for the arts, education, human service, medicine and health care.

If we find that this next generation is less engaged as audience members and arts attenders, and also much less philanthropic towards the arts, and this does not change as they mature and grow into leadership roles in business and philanthropy, then the cultural life of our country is in for some very rocky decades ahead, and our nation and our communities will be immeasurably diminshed as a result.

National Innovation Summit for Arts + Culture - I Come to Praise Innovation Not to Bury It

2013-11-04T13:28:00.000-05:00

October 20-23 Denver was host to the National Innovation Summit for Arts + Culture, organized by Emc Arts, locally sponsored by the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation, and nationally sponsored by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, James Irvine Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation. The roughly 250 participants included staff from organizations in several different communities such as Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, Minnesota/Dakotas, New York, Oregon, San Jose, St. Louis, the Bay Area and Washington DC.; as well as staff from funders in most of these cities. Participating organizations were chosen by their local funders, which also covered their cost of participating. Many of the organizations had already done some work with EmcArts locally on innovation and adaptive change. This was a unique opportunity to bring together arts leaders - management and artistic leadership - from many communities around the country, all grappling with challenges of how to build organizations and programs that best achieved their missions in the context of today's rapidly changing landscape.

The content consisted of interactive workshops, 27 succinct ("TED-style") talks followed by group discussion, arts experiences and participatory games designed to expand thinking and promote interaction. the Talks were streamed to a national/international audience of participants.

So how did this all go? Was it all worth it? Probably depends on whom you ask. Todd London of New Dramatists in New York City gave one of the talks - later published in a widely read and disseminated blog post - that essentially was a diatribe (albeit a very well-articulated one) on the very idea of the gathering and the "movement" to foster innovation in arts organizations: "Most of us [at New Dramatists] swing between incredulity and fury at the rampant spread of this innovation obsession in the arts. I come to bury innovation not to praise it. It signals another incursion on the arts by corporate culture, directive funders, and those who have drunk the Kool Aid of high tech hip and devotional entrepreneurism." He essentially admitted participating solely to potentially qualify for some funding and maybe connect with some colleagues but apparently saw no value at all in the conversation and in fact finds this focus on innovation to be destructive and also to be funder and consultant-driven.

So first of all I have to say while I highly respect Todd's intellect and thoughtfulness (and was delighted to see him again after many years), I think his talk was a wild over-reaction and a simplistic interpretation of what we were talking about. But it played well to the crowd (both live and on-line) and it always sounds good to say "art is good, artists are good, funders are bad, just give us the money to do what we do however we choose to do it." (Of course, now I am guilty of over-simplifying his comments...)

He cited as evidence of nefarious funder interference a Kellogg Foundation study that found that every nonprofit organization should have innovation as a core organizational competency, implying that Kellogg was recommending that an innovation bureaucracy be created along with development,. marketing, finance, etc. I do not think this was their intention at all. And of course there was hostility towards the trendiness, the "buzz-word" nature of innovation, following on the heels of "community engagement", "audience development", etc. What I think we are talking about with innovation - and demonstrated by virtually all the other presenters - is building the personal and institutional capacity to approach everything we do through a new lens, to adapt to changing demographics in ways that HELP our art reach and resonate with new audiences, to change our organizational systems to be responsive and nimble, to take risks, and learn lessons when they don't pan out. Maybe New Dramatists can survive doing things the same way they have always done them, or maybe they feel they are already engaged in all of this sort of work, but I think most organizations are finding that many of their old ways of operating simply don't work effectively anymore, and to best serve their missions, to best serve their art and artists, they must adapt. Look at Michael Kaiser's recent blog post, questioning whether we are moving towards an era where a handful of "mega-companies" in the performing arts will serve the world, and smaller, regional, organizations will go away. (I must note, since I have referenced Kaiser, that Todd in his remarks also cited a NY funder who required grantees to study with "turn-around king" and "high-paid macher" Kaiser before receiving funds - a practice I do not support...)

Funders are not driving this trend. Funders are reacting to changes in the environment, and doing their best to build supportive responses into their grantmaking. Maybe sometimes they are overprescriptive, but they are at least trying to be thoughtful about how they best advance the arts. About 18 months ago the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation created an Arts Innovation Fund designed to provide capital to organizations "developing new approaches to creating and presenting art, engaging new audiences, and strengthening financial sustainability." I don't think Wonderbound - a Denver dance company that used to be known as Ballet Nouveau, and one of the early major recipients of one of our Innovation Fund grants - would agree that we were a manipulative funder somehow forcing them to corrupt their artistic purity to conform to our idea of what they should be. I think - I hope - they would say that we were that rare funder that was willing to take a daring leap into the unknown with them, a vision of a ballet company that could be built around collaboration, community and extraordinary artistry.

There were many challenging strands to the conversation, beyond Todd's. Many participants also were concerned by the lack of diversity among the participants, and the small number of culturally-specific organizations. Others joined Todd in reacting against buzz-words, and consultant-speak, and the need to ensure artists are at the table and empowered in these conversations. This last point was especially well articulated by Carlton Turner of Alternate ROOTS in some summing up comments.

Hard to single out other speakers. Eric Booth was, as always, a masterful facilitator, helping us explore the complexity of assessing results of innovation. It was also great to have the equally strong facilitation skills of John McCann (the "mc" in Emc) on hand for the workshops and concluding synthesis sessions, as well as Emc's own Richard Evans. These sort of interactive conversations can collapse in the absence of strong facilitation/moderation. In the Talks, David Devan told the story of how Opera Philadelphia dramatically advanced its art, and its connection to community, by beginning with a plan for effective and appropriate capitalization. Other inspiring stories from organizations large and small: Shake38 from Shakespeare Festival St. Louis, the San Francisco Symphony's Community of Music Makers program, Mixed Blood Theatre of Minneapolis and what they dubbed "radical hospitality." And it is always a treat to hear Laura Zabel of Springboard for the Arts in St. Paul talk about their work which puts artists at the center of their work to build community. You can find all the streamed talks archived here. (And must cite the excellent behind the scenes work of Liz Dryer, the EmcArts staffer who had the often thankless role of coordinating all the details of the Summit.)

I, for one, came away inspired by all the - yes, I will say it - innovative work being done by organizations around the country, by the deep interaction with colleagues, grantee and grantor alike. (I was, of course, also thrilled that this gathering offered the opportunity to introduce so many colleagues to the extraordinary, creative city of Denver that is my new home.) I was challenged to think more deeply about how we truly commit to diversity, to engagement of artists in our organizations (not just as "the product"), and to the role of the funder in this work. I think EmcArts tried hard to stay away from the tired panel discussion/plenary structure of other conferences. I must admit I was a curmudgeon and unwilling participant in the "Games", but others seemed to enjoy them, and they helped break up the intense focus of the rest of the program. The Summit ended with an attempt to summarize the conversations into a "Manifesto" - a document that might organize some "principles to guide adaptive change" and be shared widely. The closing session gave the group a chance to react to this effort which really - and appropriately - was organized around many questions we must ask ourselves, as opposed to a "recipe" for innovation. I am sure EmcArts will share some of the outcomes once they all recover and process. And finally, as only he can do, Ben Cameron of Doris Duke, wrapped things up with some inspiring words that truly connected innovation to art, artists and community.

An Extraordinary Fellowship Program - Extraordinary Leaders

2013-10-23T18:06:00.000-04:00

I have just returned from the annual Livingston Fellows Retreat, a component of the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation 9-year-old Livingston Fellowship Program, and can't resist posting a quick summary of my reaction/perceptions.

This program was launched nine years ago in honor of Johnston R. Livingston, who was Chairman Emeritus of the Foundation, and passed away in 2008. He had a personal passion for leadership in the nonprofit sector, and was deeply invested in this program. Even as the Foundation has shifted its grantmaking entirely to arts and culture this year, there is a steadfast commitment to retaining the larger nonprofit sector reach of this program, including arts as well as other nonprofit leaders. I believe this is extremely healthy as it integrates arts leaders into larger conversations about leadership, making a difference in our community, balancing personal and professional obligations etc. These problems are not "special" in the arts and benefit from being part of a larger conversation and network. Read Laura Zabel's great and provocative blog post on why "artists are ordinary."

So exactly what happens in the Livingston Fellowship program, and why do I think it is pretty unique and special? Each year, five Colorado nonprofit leaders (most from the Denver area) - generally executive directors who are mid-career - are selected to participate through a nomination process. They are given consulting time with a leadership consultant as well as an organizational psychologist, AND a commitment of $25,000 towards the execution of a personal, customized leadership advancement plan. The class of fellows then comes together in a retreat to share their early thinking about the goals and basic outlines of their plan, guided by Foundation staff and a consultant, but largely sharing and learning peer-to-peer. Following this they develop a formal plan that is then reviewed and approved by the Foundation, with a two year window for completion. The plans vary as much as one individual varies from another. There is an inherent recognition that sometimes to grow as leaders we need to grow as human beings, so plans may involve efforts to get "out of the comfort zone" - learning a new skill, sport, hobby or artistic practice; they may involve traditional executive coaching or seminars and conferences; they may involve travel, whether for self-exploration, or to be exposed to new cultures and languages.

And like a good approach to strategic planning, the Foundation has always recognized that sometimes plans need to change mid-stream, so there is an openness to revisions along the way - and many if not most are revised.

Livingston fellows (l-r) Erin Pulling, Project Angel Heart (2010), Chip Walton, Curious Theatre (2005), Sharon Knight, Warren Village (2012), Mike Yankovich, Chidren's Museum of Denver (2011) Heather Lafferty, Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver (2013)

It is clear that participation in the program has had a profound impact on the participants, creating a diverse nonprofit leadership cohort in Denver like I have seen in no other City. Part of the effectiveness of the program is that the participation does not end with the completion of one's Fellowship plan. No, once accepted in the program you are part of a "club" that just keeps growing ever year. A regular series of lunches is held with special guest speakers or issue discussion topics. And each year the ENTIRE group of all current and past fellows are invited to gather for a retreat, which is what took place last week. In the end, about 1/2 - 2/3 of all Fellows participated, still pretty remarkable given that they were committing to two days and nights out of the office and away from family, in some cases nine years distant from their original fellowship experience.

And because all the fellows have in common having gone through the fellowship process, which forces deep self-examination, merging personal and professional issues, the level of openness, sharing and trust among the group is striking. Participation in the retreat becomes for many, I think, a way to reconnect with that journey they went on through the fellowship, and to keep that striving to be the best leaders - and human beings - that they can be, part of their life and daily practice, not something that fades like an old photograph.

As the "new guy" I have the opportunity to engage in some tweaks to the Fellowship program going forward, to look at it with fresh eyes, and with ten years coming up I am sure we will do a ten year assessment. I do hope, for example, to add to our Web site some of the stories of the Fellows experiences and learnings that could be shared. That said, I want to take this opportunity to say how honored I am to now lead a Foundation that could create and sustain a program like this - it is a gift to me and the community from my predecessor, Dorothy Horrell, from the consultant on the program Jesse King, from the Bonfils-Stanton Board, and most of all from John Livingston.

Go West Young Man - Heading to Denver!

2013-06-27T13:13:00.000-04:00

As some may have already heard, I have been appointed the new President and Chief Executive Officer of the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation in Denver, Colorado. I am so excited about taking on this new challenge but, of course, sorry to be leaving my friends and colleagues here in Philadelphia. Here is the link to the City of Philadelphia press release, and to the Foundation release. Someone congratulated me with the quote "Go West Young Man", which I took as a reference to Horace Greeley who coined the term. He meant it as a reference to the Pet Shop Boys Song, which somehow passed me by completely. (Well, I know how it passed me by - I have a 90's popular culture black hole from the era when I was parenting two young children!)

I feel proud of my accomplishments in Philadelphia as Chief Cultural Officer and director of the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, and feel that I am leaving a strong legacy, and a great team in place. I will also be staying in my position through October 1 so I will able to work with the Mayor, Chief of Staff, and Joe Kluger, Chairman of the Mayor's Cultural Advisory Council, on what I am confident will be a smooth and successful transition process.

One of the highlights of my work here in Philadelphia has been helping to bring to the City the Knight Arts Challenge and working closely with both national Knight Arts staff and the local program staff on the successful implementation of this three-year $9 million commitment to the city's arts community. Its impact has been extraordinary, helping to support some really inspiring work.

A few other things I am most proud of are the establishing of a City Hall Art Gallery; the creation of City Hall Presents - a performing arts series in the City Hall Courtyard, funded by the Knight Arts Challenge; the launch of CultureBlocks, an innovative creative asset data mapping tool; distribution of $500,000 in CDBG-R funds to help in the construction of creative workspace facilities; creating a City celebration of Jazz Month and International Jazz Day; establishing a City Poet Laureate and Youth Poet Laureate program; and helping to craft an execute with many partners the "With Art" tourism promotion campaign.

And, of course, there are the countless hard to quantify accomplishments - guiding/advising/assisting arts organizations and creative enterprises in their efforts to both work with City government and stretch their capacities and innovate; also making matches and connections. Some of these are small things, and sometimes small things can lead to truly important accomplishments. Such as suggesting to Jane Golden and Mural Arts that they explore working with Haas and Hahn, the Dutch artists previously best known for their work in the Favelas of Brazil. Mural Arts was able to get them to Philadelphia for an amazing project on Germantown Avenue, Philly Painting, that has garnered international acclaim and was recently selected as one of the top public art projects in the US for 2012 by the Americans for the Arts "Public Art Year in Review." (Thanks, AGAIN, to a grant from the Knight Arts Challenge...). Great video about the project here, and a GREAT case study just published, available here. It was also a highlight when Philadelphia was chosen the #1 city for Culture in America by Travel + Leisure's annual poll in 2011.

The Bonfils-Stanton Foundation has been a significant supporter of the arts in Denver, and I am looking forward to working with the Board to build on this strong foundation and develop strategies for how the Foundation can help the Denver arts community grow and innovate. I am also excited that the Foundation is deeply involved in efforts to develop and nurture leadership within Denver's nonprofit sector, an area of great interest to me.

Here is some more information in the Foundation:

About Bonfils-Stanton Foundation

Founded in 1962 by Charles Edwin Stanton, the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation was initially funded from the sale of Belmar Farms in Lakewood, the current site of the Belmar Library and Belmar “downtown neighborhood”. The Foundation Trustees carry on Mr. Stanton’s legacy through financial investments that support, enrich, and elevate art and culture in Colorado.

In 1984, the Foundation established the Annual Awards Program to honor distinguished Coloradans making unique and significant contributions in the fields of Art and Culture, Community Service, and Science and Medicine. The Livingston Fellowship Program, launched in 2005, provides advanced learning and professional development opportunities for high potential nonprofit leaders. National Philanthropy Day honored the Foundation as the 2007 Foundation of the Year in Colorado. Since its founding, the Foundation has distributed over $54 million in charitable contributions. More information is available at www.bonfils-stanton.org

Even though I began this blog at the beginning of my tenure in Philadelphia, I hope to continue to contribute to it in my new role. (Perhaps I will modify the name to avoid confusion with the Office in Philly). Stay tuned!

"Drive Carefully" - Commencement Speech to CAPA Graduates

2013-06-20T11:56:00.000-04:00

On June 19th I delivered a commencement address to the graduating class of Philadelphia's High School of the Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA). A number of people asked me to post it. Text is below...

Greetings everyone, Principal Whaley, parents, students, faculty and all special guests. I am Gary Steuer, the Chief Cultural Officer for the City of Philadelphia, and I run the City’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy.

It is my great honor to be here to today to celebrate these outstanding graduates, the best creative young people that our City can produce.

Being a part of this program has a special resonance for me. While I did not go to CAPA, or even grow up in Philadelphia, I can relate to all of the students graduating today. That is because I graduated from LaGuardia High School for the Arts in New York City, which is the equivalent of CAPA in New York. In fact I graduated 40 years ago, almost to the day. So I was in your shoes a long time ago. I also had the honor of representing the Mayor to greet you on the first day of school of 2009 when you first arrived at CAPA, and I feel like being here to send you off is completing the circle.

So my high school years were also spent balancing academia and art, and the school was filled with aspiring visual artists, dancers, musicians, and actors. But the reality is that only a relatively small percentage of the graduates actually went into the arts as their primary career. I am sort of the exception.

My fellow graduates went into such diverse professions as law, social work, business, teaching, and healthcare. But whatever we did, our experience as artists shaped who we were – made us more creative, better collaborators, more disciplined – that is what making art teaches you.

AND some graduates did go into the arts, including the for-profit commercial arts, becoming film producers, graphic designers, architects and recording engineers. And yes, some even became working artists, actors, dancers and musicians. And at least one became this weird thing called a Chief Cultural Officer.

The reality is that when you look at the creative sector as a larger economic sector that includes for-profit and nonprofit businesses, the sector employs 50,000 people in Philadelphia, making it the fourth largest employment industry sector in the City, behind only health care, education and retail. So let me put it bluntly: there ARE jobs out there in the real world for you when you are finished with college.

And when researchers study what businesses are looking for in new employees, they find business is looking for exactly the sort of skills and qualities that the arts foster in us. So a powerful grounding in making art, any kind of art, makes you better at whatever you do, even if professional art-making ends up not being where you end up.

For me, it was a very roundabout road that led me to where I am today, and I thought it might be helpful to share a bit of my career path.

I wanted to go to a BFA art conservatory training program for college, but my folks really wanted me to get a liberal arts degree. They had the money so guess who won that battle? But I have to say, maybe they were right. While doing my undergraduate training, I still took lots of studio art courses, but I found myself also studying, acting, directing, literature, and political science.

I ended up doing an internship for a United States Congressman that turned into a job. Through pure chance it turned out the Congressman’s chief of staff had a friend who worked at the museum of Modern Art who needed some extra help. So I moonlighted at MoMA and realized that there were actually lots of jobs at place like museums – doing fundraising, marketing, finance, etc. – not just being a curator or an artist. For me it was sort of like that scene in the Wizard of Oz when Toto pulls back the curtain and you learn that the Wizard of Oz is just an ordinary man. I learned the magic of the arts is fueled by lots of people with real jobs not making art, but making arts organizations run. So I went back to school to get a Masters in Arts Management.

That led eventually to running theatre companies and also working on producing commercial productions on and off Broadway. For a while – when I had young children of my own and working the long hours of running a theatre company was more difficult – I also ran a funding department of the New York State Council on the Arts. And then for about a dozen years I was President and CEO of a national organization called the Arts & Business Council that promotes mutually-beneficial partnership between the arts and business. That group then merged with another national organization called Americans for the Arts.

And then Mayor Nutter, after he was first elected, persuaded me that there was an exciting opportunity here in Philadelphia to help transform this great City through the creative energy of the arts and creative enterprise, running this new thing he created called the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy. It has been unbelievably rewarding to be a part of the Renaissance that has been taking place in this City over the past 5 years, despite the tough economy. Reversing a 50 year population decline, doubling the percentage of college graduates who choose to STAY in the City after they graduate. Fostering a creative sector that generates well over $3 billion economic impact AND PRODUCES 50,000 creative jobs.

BUT, and there is a big but, and one that many of the students and parents know all too well. This City certainly still has some pretty serious challenges. It is still the poorest big city in America, with many neighborhoods filled with people who have trouble finding jobs, hope and opportunity. We have a School District that cannot afford to sustain the level of education that our children, families and citizens – and our administrators and teachers – know MUST be provided to our young people if they are to have quality educational opportunity. And we know that education – not just for kids lucky enough to go to CAPA, MUST include arts education if we are going to produce graduates ready for the 21^st Century workforce.

So here is my charge to you: Go out and train as artist if that is where your heart and ambition takes you: make art, act, sing, dance. And if your education, passions or chance, take you away from a life as a practicing artist, bring your creativity and innovation FROM the arts to whatever you choose to study or whatever field you choose to work in. And find a way to continue to make the arts a part of your life: play in a band on the side, sing in a chorus, have an art studio in your garage, go to shows, volunteer for an arts group. There are so many ways you can make this – what you have done here at CAPA – a part of the entire rest of your life.

Finally, be a part of figuring out how to improve our communities, our City, how to solve these seemingly intractable problems. It has taken a few generations for us – the grown-ups – to make lots of decisions that have gotten us to where we are now. It is likely to take a few generations of smart, dedicated folks – like you - making the right decisions to get us out of these troubles. It is not going to be easy. But if YOU dedicate yourself to this work, I feel confident that your children will live in an even better City than we are giving to you. So I guess I am, metaphorically, giving YOU the keys to the City.

Drive carefully.

Creative Asset Data Mapping - CultureBlocks launches!

2013-05-02T16:39:00.000-04:00

First off, let me apologize for having been so remiss in my blogging activities the past few months. I have tried to keep up with my social networking connections, so I have not disappeared entirely from the digital universe, but I have dropped the ball on my blog. No excuses other than the usual: work, kids, STUFF.

So what momentous news has lured me back to the blogosphere? It is the launch of an exciting new project this week in Philadelphia: CultureBlocks. Click this link for the press release announcing the project. And here is a link to a one-sheeter describing the project.

CultureBlocks is a web-based mapping tool that has built into it over 50 different types of data that can be layered onto a map of Philadelphia in infinite ways. The project was initiated by the City of Philadelphia Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy along with several core partners: The Reinvestment Fund, the Social Impact of the Arts Project of the University of Pennsylvania (SIAP), and the City's Commerce Department. We have been working on this for about three years, from the very beginning of the idea stage.

A few months ago, ArtPlace held a Creative Placemaking Summit in Miami, and as part of that conference produced a quick Pecha Kucha-style video presentation on each funded project. Here is the video on CultureBlocks. If you are "visual learner" it might be a good alternative way to get an overview.

The data comes from the City (many different agencies), Federal Census data, from SIAP, and from a host of data partners, like the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance. There is such cultural/creative data as locations of nonprofit cultural organizations, nonprofit (non-arts) orgs and even unincorporated entities that have cultural programs, for-profit creative businesses, where individual artists live, creative workspace facilities, and where cultural audiences are distributed. There is information on demographics - age, race, gender, income, education levels, etc. There is data on location of public transportation routes (including bike lanes), commercial corridors, CDBG eligibility, land use, locations of schools, parks and rec centers, and a host of other community assets and characteristics.

This new tool has already received pretty wide media coverage, including in the Philadelphia Business Journal, Philadelphia Inquirer, WHYY-Newsworks, Associated Press, Next City, Hidden City, The Art Blog, Philebrity, the Philadelphia City Planning Blog, and Metro. Actually, all coverage has also been organized into one Storify site you can access here.

So what does this actually look like and how do you use it? Here are a few screenshots that should provide a flavor of how it works, but really the best thing is to click on some of the links above to get background information and media coverage, and then to dive in and begin playing with the tool yourself.

We believe this is a really robust (if admittedly sometimes overwhelming to beginning users) resource, and will be a tool to inform City policy, to help guide philanthropic decisions, to help individual arts organizations and creative businesses use data to make location-based decisions. It will also be a great tool for research and learning, to be used by Social Impact of the Arts Project at Penn as well as others. I suspect people will use it in ways we have not even anticipated.

So, above is more or less what you see when you first enter the site. There are three ways to use the data. Explore pretty much allows you to poke around and use all the different data sets, either for the whole City, or for a specific geographical area. Profile is a pre-designed report feature that for any selected geographic area (neighborhood, zip code, etc.) can produce a simple, easy profile of the creative assets and demographics of that area. Match helps a user find an area of the City that matches up to three criteria that can be designated, such as, "I would like to know which areas of the City have low income, low cultural/creative resources, and availability of schools, libraries and rec centers." This search might be done by an arts education provider looking to reach an underserved community, but also hoping for available facilities and partners that could help deliver arts education programs.

Here is an example of what an Explore results screen might look like. In this case mapping the whole City for concentrations of cultural participation by block group. Darker blue indicates highest levels of participation.

Above is a sample Match screen, showing the result of a query looking for areas of high cultural participation rates, high resident artists concentration in walking distance, and ethnic diversity.

And below is a sample Profile results screen, in this case for the University City neighborhood:

So, I encourage you to explore CultureBlocks, whether you are in Philadelphia or somewhere else in the country, or even the world. We hope it will not only serve our local community, but also be a model for replication in other communities. If you tweet about CultureBlocks we ask that you use the #CultureBlocks hashtag so we can follow the conversation! And feel free to comment here with your thoughts, or email us directly.

A big thanks to the funders, the National Endowment for the Arts, and ArtPlace, without whom this could not have been created; and to Philadelphia's Deputy Cultural Officer Moira Baylson, who has led this project from the beginning.

The Barnes Comes to Philadelphia - And City Hall

2012-08-08T11:00:00.000-04:00

The Art Gallery at City Hall recently opened our newest exhibition, in partnership with Fresh Artists - "Mini-Masterpieces from the Barnes Foundation" - and it is a stunner. The show features an array of pictures created by Philadelphia School District children (from Hancock and Henry elementary schools) that are inspired by the iconic paintings of the Barnes Foundation collection. Originally developed to be reproduced and installed on panels affixed to the construction fencing that surrounded the site while the Barnes on the Parkway was being built, this installation now brings the work of these talented young people into City Hall, installed and hung in "Barnesian ensembles" that include student-made replicas of the metal hinges and objects that Barnes famously included in his ensembles. We have even painted the walls of our gallery beige to replicate the color of the wall covering in the Barnes galleries.

Fresh Artists is a unique non-profit social business that helps young artists use their art to be arts philanthropists. The students donate the digital reproduction of their art, thereby becoming partners in a philanthropic effort. Businesses that support Fresh Artists receive a "thank you" gift of the opportunity to exhibit the work in their workplaces. The funds generated are directly infused back into public school art programs to purchase art supplies and support innovative art programs. Everybody wins and it is a true virtuous circle. So please try and make it to the Art Gallery at City Hall where the exhibition runs through September 21. More info on Fresh Artists at www.freshartists.org.

New Barnes building at night

And speaking of the Barnes, which I covered some time ago in my blog when the design was working its way through the approval process, here, here and here, I feel the time has come to weigh in on my thoughts about the new building. The first two posts from 2009 feature videos of architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien talking about their design. The third post, from mid-2010, is my analysis of the controversy surrounding the move of the collection from Merion.

Having now spent MANY hours in and around the new building, experiencing the extraordinary art in its new home, and experiencing the building itself, as well as the grounds and its setting, I have to say I think this facility is a stunning achievement, attained against perhaps greater odds than any other building I can imagine.

New "old" gallery - bathed in light

As has been much written about by now, the brilliant use of light in the new building allows the work to "pop" and sparkle in a way that is quite startling to those that spent a lot of time in the Merion building (as I also did). Colors are brighter, and works stand out much more than they ever did before. Yet the rooms are still exactly the same dimensions and in essentially the same configurations as in Merion. The ensembles remain meticulously reproduced - unchanged to the millimeter - with decorative implements, furniture and other objects still in exactly the same relationship to the Cezannes, Renoirs and Soutines. The two modest changes are the "insertions of two spaces into the galleries, one on each side, as if the ends of the galleries were sliced and pulled apart a bit. This is intended by the architects to both add a little "breathing space" to make the transition from small gallery room to small gallery room a bit less cramped, and to add some practical classroom space. On one side a large glassed-in garden rises through the building, open to the sky, that creates a place to pause surrounded by light and green. On the other side, each floor gets a classroom space, directly with the galleries. I must add that in keeping with the attention to detail in the building even the tables and chairs in the classrooms are gorgeous works of artisanal furniture.

The central court - Merion galleries through gates on the right.

Other examples of the remarkable attention to detail throughout include the carefully carved and textured Jerusalem stone that covers the exterior and a good part of the interior, the sound absorbing tapestry murals in the central court, the recycled Coney Island boardwalk wood in the flooring, and the shallow reflecting pool outside filled with polished black stones. Also of note is the new temporary exhibition area that is now devoted to a show on Dr. Barnes himself. Even though going through the entire Barnes collection itself can be a exhausting experience, when you visit do NOT miss the exhibit on Barnes, in the gallery to the left as you enter the central court. It fills a critical gap that was missing in the old site - context. It really helps you understand the man, his passions, his eccentricities, his sly sense of humor, his unerring eye for talent. I especially encourage you to read the witty rejection letters he sent to prospective visitors, usually in the guise of his dog, or a fictional assistant. My one quibble with the building would be that this gallery space is so discrete that I think many visitors inadvertently miss it.

Here are some links to the local and national coverage of the Barnes to date, not mostly (but not all) positive, including many raves:

Barbara Smith, New York Times "A museum, reborn, remains true to its old self, only better."
Paul Goldberger, Vanity Fair "Soulful, self-assured, and filled with light."
Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker "Spectacular contemporary architecture...cradles the modest graces of the Merion structure with an air of religious veneration."
Ada Louise Huxtable, Wall Street Journal "The new Barnes shouldn't work...but does."
Christopher Hawthorne, Architectural Record and LA Times "Sober, handsome and exquisitely detailed...suffers from a distinct lack of soul..."
Karrie Jacobs, Metropolis "..a supremely confident, modern building..."
Linda Yablonsky, Artnet "Fabulosity in a box."
Inga Saffron, Philadelphia Inquirer "A ravishing building, cut off from the city..."
Ed Sozanski, Philadelphia Inquirer "Galleries shine at the new Barnes..."
Diana Lind, Architectural Record "...promises to further Philadelphia's identity as an artistic magnet."

And here is a link to information on WHYY's new documentary, The Barnes Collection that provides an alternative/complementary view to that provided by Art of the Steal. I also encourage those interested to explore the With Art website - a campaign to help visitors put the Barnes in the context of Philadelphia's other related rich cultural assets: visual arts, art education, horticulture, the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and the diversity of the City and its neighborhoods, shopping and food.

Now to respond directly to some of the criticism of the building:

"As long as they were moving the collection they should have done away entirely with Barnes's ensembles and exhibited the art in a fresh new way" - This was simply not possible, even if anybody had wanted to do so. The building and exhibition program was constrained by the legal (and ethical) need to make good on the promise to move the collection while being true to Barnes's vision and intent.

"The building is cold and austere" - Of course this is a matter of taste, but I find the building to have a Zen-like simplicity that is restful and perfectly attuned to the focus needed to experience the art, from the landscape outside to the materials and workmanship reflected in every nook and cranny of the building.

"The building turns its back on the Parkway" - I totally get the intent of Williams and Tsien (and Olin) and think it works: to create a bucolic setting for the building that sets it back from the Parkway in a garden. The pedestrian route to the entrance on Pennsylvania Avenue takes you through the landscaping around the building and across the reflecting pool. In that passageway you make a mental shift. You enter the building having metaphorically and literally left the cares of the urban setting behind you. I don't think the Parkway needs another grand Free Library or Franklin Institute-like colonnaded entrance. I think the building still makes a dramatic statement on the Parkway without having it's entrance on the Parkway.

"It is ugly to have the concrete wall of the parking lot visible from the entrance site." I think the poured concrete wall that masks the small parking lot from the building is actually a beautiful texture that marries well with other materials, and the wall is also covered with trellises and climbing plants that over time will soften the surface with green.

Finally, the building has wonderful ancillary spaces - meeting rooms, classrooms, library, auditorium, gift shop, cafe - that enhance the visitor experience, enhance learning, and allow the building to also serve as an important community resource. (I recently wrote about museum gift shops - including the Barnes, which had yet to open - here.)

Beyond kudos to the architects Williams and Tsien, we must also acknowledge landscape architects Olin: with their work on the Barnes now joining their work on the Rodin Museum site (which also just recently re-opened), the Art Museum sculpture garden and LeWitt garden installation, they have made an indelible, transformational imprint on the Parkway. Because light is so much a part of the success of the galleries at the Barnes, I must also congratulate lighting designers Fisher Marantz Stone. And you have to give credit to board and staff too - there are so many ways this project could have failed, and it took great dedication by board and staff to bring this to successful completion. Finally, I want to also give a nod to Pentagram design, for crafting the new look for the Museum - signage, logo, print materials, web site. I think it strikes the perfect balance between classic/classy and sleek/modern

If you have not yet been to the new building, I highly recommend you pay a visit. (More info on reserving tickets here.) If you opposed the move, I respect your position, but urge you to still go, and try to keep an open mind. The art is all still there, Barnes's aura still hangs over the place, the art and his views on art are now being experienced by so many more people. While we will never know, I, for one, like to think that Dr. Barnes is dancing with delight in his grave rather than turning over in disgust.

Arts & Culture Gift Shop Guide - America (Part 3)

2012-05-07T12:29:00.001-04:00

My past two blog posts have surveyed, first, Philadelphia's arts and culture gifts shops, followed by New York City's cultural gift shops . Essentially I've been exploring museum gift shops, but I have also noted some gift shops at botanical gardens, zoos and other cultural venues. So now, in the third, and probably final, installment of this survey, I am going to cover a selection of shops across the country. This is not scientific - the list is drawn from museum and other cultural gift shops I have enjoyed visiting in the course of my travels. So if your favorite is not on this list, don't be offended - post a comment, and I will do my best to visit it if I am ever passing through that city/town.

Getty Center Museum and Getty Villa (Los Angeles and Malibu) - The Getty Center Museum in LA has an excellent gift shop, as well as an excellent online store. Because of their strong photography collection and exhibitions program, there are often good photography-based items (featured is a poster of a photo by Herb Ritts, now being highlighted in an exhibition). The Getty Villa in Malibu is also a must-visit location (by reservation only, so plan in advance), but it seems the Villa does not have a web site for its store, which is excellent (or at least was when I was last there). There is one Getty online store, but it seems to carry very few of the items related to the classical art collection at the Villa. Solve the problem by physically visiting BOTH sites, and both stores.

de Young Museum (San Francisco) - The de Young, in a spectacular hilltop park setting in San Francisco, dates back to the 19th Century, but their building is an arresting new building designed by the Swiss firm of Herzog and de Meuron, which opened in 2005. The shop is excellent and eclectic. The museum, for example, has an extensive contemporary collection, but also a very strong Oceanic and Pacific-Islander collection. They currently have a show of Anatolian Kilim rugs, the largest such collection outside Turkey, so I am highlighting a gift shop item connected to the show, a silk scarf based on a kilim pattern.

SFMoMA - In addition to the de Young, SFMoMA is another favorite of mine in San Francisco - both the museum and the gift shop. The gift shop has a strong web site, and, as always, is also worth an in-person visit. Because they now have an exhibition on Buckminster Fuller, who was a professor in residence for many years at University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, I am highlighting a gift shop item which is a "Buckyball" kit. Can't resist the Philly connection!

Seattle Art Museum - Completing our tour of the West coast, SAM, as it is known, has a fantastic gift shop. Unfortunately, it really has no online presence at all (in general I have not really featured shops with no web site but I am making an exception here). It has the usual books, T-shirts and other products related directly to their collections and to their own branding. But there is an excellent collection of crafts, household objects, jewelry and kids items. So when you are in Seattle, don't miss the art at SAM, and don't miss their spectacular waterfront sculpture park; but also don't miss the gift shop!

Art Institute of Chicago - Now moving into the center of the country, the Art Institute is, of course, one of MANY "must visit" cultural venues in Chicago, and as expected of a museum of its scale and quality, also has a superb gift shop with a good online presence. Two of their most iconic works of art are George Seurat's A Sunday on La Grand Jatte and (one of) Monet's Water Lillies, and as you can image, the shop is chock-a-block with products reproducing those images - on note cards, ties, umbrellas, totes, etc. Of course they have so many other products too. I am featuring an image of an umbrella based on the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Coonley Playhouse, the windows from which are in the Art Institute's collection. I happen to be a big fan of Wright's decorative arts designs. If you want a really full array of items, visit the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation web site (they also have a great catalog, as well as an on-site gift shop at Taliesen West in Scottsdale AZ).

Milwaukee Art Museum - This museum is in a striking Santiago Calatrava designed building right on the waterfront. This new structure is actually an addition to the original building, also designed by a famous architect - Eero Saaranin. To be honest, I don't know how much of their gift shop selection is really directly related to their collection, but the shop is great nonetheless. I have to admit when I visited this shop I simply wanted to buy half the stock. Many, many, great items, for the home, jewelry, men's and women's accessories, children's stuff. Some of which is the same stuff you may see in other museum shops, but some of which is unique. The first place I spotted the women's clutches and purses made in Brazil from soda can pop-tops was in this shop, which I bought for my wife - now they seem to be everywhere. I also picked up a tie based on a Gee's Bend Quilt design. Here is a purse made from recycled seat belt webbing.

Walker Art Center (Minneapolis) - The Walker has a very appealing gift shop, with an excellent website. As you would imagine, given the adventurous nature of their programming, their gift shop is contemporary, wide-ranging, and very hip. There is also a special "Made in Minnesota" section, as well as a new "mnartists" program that specifically promotes the work of local artists. Many gift shops seem to be beefing up their local and exclusive merchandise which I think is a great trend. We don't want museum gift shops to start looking liking the museum equivalent of Starbucks, with identical merchandise no matter where in the country you are. Featured is a set of pint glasses, each designed by a different local artist. Since I mentioned the Seattle Art Museum sculpture park, I should mention that the Walker also has a great sculpture park.

Guthrie Theatre (Minneapolis) - Their shop is small, and has no e-commerce on its web site, but I am including them as one of the rare instances of a performing arts institution with a gift shop, and a fine one at that. I actually found here a Karim Rashid watch that matched a Rashid-designed tie I had bought at another museum gift shop elsewhere in the country. They have textile products, for example, custom made by a designer from scraps from their costumes, as well as ceramics inspired by the architecture of their dramatic new building. And their building is VERY cool, with a dramatic elevated outdoor platform jutting out of the building that seems to defy gravity.

American Visionary Art Museum (Baltimore) - Well, after visiting many museum gift shops, all of which CAN seem pretty similar after a while, no matter how good, stop in at the gift shop of the Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. Dedicated to the creations of untrained "outsider" artists, the collection of this museum is unique, and extraordinary, and the gift shop reflects that uniqueness. Their web site shares that quirky outsider aesthetic, but also really has no online store. Lots of images of a sampling of their great stuff, but no ability to buy online. The image is of an example of the works of "visionary" art that they have available for purchase in their store. Interestingly, Philly's famous "folk" artist, Isaiah Zagar, whose primitive-seeming mosaic tilework covers walls over South Philadelphia, including the entire building and grounds of Magic Gardens, and has become iconic, is not eligible for inclusion, because he is trained as an artist.

New Orleans Museum of Art - This is another "encyclopedic" museum, so the gift shop again reflects that breadth. They do regularly feature the work of different local artists. They do not have e-commerce or even much info about the shop on the web site, but I recall it as being a nice little shop, with many unique NOLA items. Also in New Orleans, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art encompasses in their shop the Center for Southern Craft and Design, with many beautiful items - wood, ceramic, glass, etc. And if you manage to get to New Orleans for the Jazz and Heritage Festival (which just ended this past weekend), find your way to the extensive collection of local craft artists and artisans whose work is displayed and for sale. I just returned from JazzFest and can attest to the breadth and quality of the work. Here is a direct link to the craft area of their web site, to give you a sense of the artists and products. Pictured is a chair by Matthew Holdren of New Orleans, made from reclaimed materials.

MassMoCA - Ending with some highlights in the Northeast, MassMoCA is an amazing, unique cultural facility in North Adams Massachusetts in an old factory complex. Because of the scale of the spaces in the building, they can accommodate large scale installations, often site-specific, of work that would be difficult to do anywhere else. They have a massive Sol LeWitt installation that will be up for another twenty years or so, so I thought I would feature this platter, based on LeWitt's classic recurring line and color pattern. And if you want to see LeWitt's design executed in flowering plants, visit the Philadelphia Museum of Art's newest temporary Sol LeWitt installation, which is "drawn" in flowers and plants in Fairmount Park right behind the museum. Read more about it here.

Museum of Fine Arts Boston - I must include MFA Boston, because like NY's Met and MoMA, they have created quite the museum gift shop empire. They have a great, very large shop (actually several) as well as a robust web site, and a catalog operation. There does not seem to be any real focus on local artists and crafts. This is mostly a place for reproductions of designs/images of Degas, Monet, Hopper, etc. Some special focus on Boston themes. So if you know some aspiring ballerina who just MUST have a reproduction of Degas's famous La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans then this is your place. Lots of beautiful jewelry, but not clear how much of it really has a direct connection to the collection.

DepARTure (Albany, NY) - They have no web site, but I am including them anyway, because I think this is a model that should be rolled out across the entire nation, and can't figure out why it has not taken off. DepARTure is the name of a gift shop in the Albany, NY airport, operated by the airport authority and featuring products from the "Museums of the Capital Region" - basically all the museums from which the Albany Airport would be the gateway for air travel. This includes the Adirondack Museum, the Albany Institute of Art, the Hyde Collection, and MassMoCA. It is a beautiful little shop that brings to airport visitors the opportunity to purchase meaningful gifts, not just the usual airport souvenirs, and also helps promote and generate some revenue for area cultural attractions. I should also note (which is why I also highlighted it) that the Adirondack Museum also has its own great gift shop at its beautiful complex in Blue Mountain Lake, NY, as well as a good e-store. Featured is a one-of-a-kind miniature reproduction of a classic late-19th C. birch bark and split twig clock.

Arts and Culture Gift Shop Guide (continued): New York City

2012-04-30T17:56:00.000-04:00

After getting started with a survey of notable cultural/museum gift shops in Philadelphia last week, I am continuing the tour with a survey of my favorite shops in New York, where I spent so much time in my career (not to mention money in museum gift shops!). This list is in no particular order. I will admit, have been been back only irregularly for the past four years, so apologies if something is out of date. Feel free to post comments with suggested corrections/additions and I will do my best to update.

MoMA - The Museum of Modern Art's gift shop is really a suite of shops. There is the MoMA Design and Book Store at street level at the museum, and there is a bookstore in the museum. Across the street from the museum is the larger MoMA Design Store that features the Muji "store within a store." There is also a SoHo store in NYC and a Tokyo store. I happen to be a HUGE fan of MoMA's design store. An incredible assortment of the best of both contemporary and classic design. From Philippe Starck's classic "Louis Ghost" Louis XV style armchair in clear plastic, to the classic 1948 George Nelson wall clock, to fantastic kid's toy's, to unique (and in many cases exclusive) artist-designed jewelry and watches. They are now featuring for a limited time an array of new Mexican designs (featured photo - the Pirueta table). MoMA also has an excellent catalog as well as perhaps one of the most extensive websites.

Metropolitan Museum - perhaps the Grandaddy (or Grand Dame) of the museum gift shop world, the Met Museum shop is also huge, with many satellites throughout the building, as well as a major catalog and web site operation (they used to have shops around the country, including in some airports - don't know if they still do). As an encyclopedic museum, the Met's gift shop is reflective of that focus, and has "something for everyone." Lots of jewelry based on works from the collection covering many eras and many parts of the worked, as well as a large collection of high quality reproductions of sculptures from the collection. Can't resist including as an illustration a copy of Rodin's "The Thinker" given my current proximity to the Rodin Museum in Philly, where the largest collections of Rodin's outside of Paris is on display (sorry Met...). If you are not sure of someone's taste - contemporary or Rococo? - then the Met is good bet for you. If you are not sure of your own taste, then I can't help you...

Museum of Art and Design - Formerly located across the street from MoMA on West 53rd Street, and formerly known as the Museum of Contemporary Crafts and then the American Craft Museum, "MAD" as it is now known, has a still-pretty-spanking-new home on Columbus Circle (At the former Edward Durell Stone-designed site of the Huntington Hartford Museum which for a time was also home to the City's Department of Cultural Affairs, and the subject of a fairly protracted preservation debate about the value of the Barnes building. While the basic shell of the structure was preserved, it has been radically transformed - for the better I would argue. The new gift shop has a relatively small but very high quality collection of products, which spans both contemporary design (some cross-over with MoMA) and craft. Many glass, ceramic and wood pieces. Pictured here - a plate set called "Seconds" by Jason Miller. I recently picked up a set of Chilewich woven placemats here. As an example of how much more limited the selection usually is on-line - they are not featured on the website.

Wave Hill - This is one of my favorite spots in New York City, a beautiful unique garden, with two historic mansions that are used for programming, situated in the Riverdale area of the Bronx with sweeping view of the Hudson River and the Palisades. The shop has a small but great selection of garden-themed items. Unfortunately, no online shop. So painful - you will to go there... If you have kids (or can borrow some) go for the Family Art Project on Saturdays and Sundays from 10-1. There is also a lovely cafe with an outdoor seating are featuring sweeping view of the river, where you can sit and sip an espresso while congratulating yourself on your brilliant purchases at the shop.

New York Botanical Garden - Contrary to the Wave Hill garden shop, which is a small boutique, the NYBG shop is the equivalent of a department store. The Garden is similarly huge, with its famous Conservatory, as well as acres of wild forest trails. (The orchid show is epic, with a connected orchid sale in the shop.) A huge shop more akin to the Longwood Gardens shop in the Philly area. Here you are sure to find the gift for the gardener in your life. Also, like many garden shops (including Longwood, Wave Hill and Brooklyn Botanic Gardens) you can buy living objects as well - plant specimens, orchids, bulbs, etc. NYBG has an extensive online store. Brooklyn Botanic Garden also has an extensive physical shop, as well as an online shop. I am more familiar with the NYBG shop, but that is no knock on Brooklyn. BBG is especially known for its Rose Garden and Cherry Blossoms.

Queens Museum of Art - The Queens Museum's gift shop reflects the idiosyncratic nature of the collections and exhibitions here. As one of the remaining structures from the 1939 World's Fair - the New York City pavilion, the museum has a great collection of World's Fair ephemera (from both 1964 and 1939). The museum also has the New York City Panorama - a scale model three dimensional reproduction of ALL of New York, with every building, street and bridge modeled to scale. And then, it also has some of New York's most adventurous contemporary art exhibitions, with a special focus (of course) on Queens artists and history. I know it's not a gift shop item, but I can't resist sharing a shot of the Panorama.

Brooklyn Museum - Like the Met Museum, the Brooklyn Museum is an encyclopedic museum, with collections ranging from a renowned Egyptian collection to the current special exhibition of the work of Keith Haring. And the gift shop is a reflection of that wide range, with a special emphasis on the "local" - Brooklyn themes and and artists/designers. Featured image -a doorstop or bookend which is a case resin and marble reproduction of a vintage 70's roller-skate, by Brooklyn artist Harry Allen. A cool aspect of their site - large assortment of "Art on Demand" prints, custom printed in an assortment of sizes when you order.

Children's Museum of Manhattan (CMoM) - The space, on the upper west side of Manhattan, is somewhat cramped, and the store is somewhat reflective of that. Still, a great assortment of kid's gifts. There is a web store, but it is pretty primitive. And if we are mentioning CMoM, on the children's museum front, I should also mention Brooklyn Children's Museum (on-site store, but no web store). While it is not a children's institution by any stretch, and it has a shop with a wide array of items related to its natural history and science mission, I must include the American Museum of Natural History in this same category, if only because my childhood was filled with so many trips to the museum, to see the permanent exhibits, the dinosaurs, the great whale, the dioramas, AND always a stop at the wonderful gift shop for a toy, a treat, an "educational" item that was also fun. Of course, there is also jewelry, objects for the home, and apparel for adults. BUT gotta feature this cool remote-controlled flying shark from AMNH.

Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum - Part of the Smithsonian Institution, the Cooper-Hewitt has a wonderful shop. Small-ish on-site (they have some space limitations) but with a great, cleanly designed web site featuring a large collection of items, many whimsical and unique to the Cooper Hewitt. Photo is of a Japanese bamboo steamer basket sourced by Alisa Grifo of the SoHo shop Kiosk. One of the nice things about the shop and website - lots of background on sources.

Jewish Museum - As you might expect, the Jewish Museum has an extraordinary Judaica collection. If you want a show-stopping menorah, mezuzah or Seder plate, that can bring great beauty to your Jewish ceremonies, this is your shop. By the Jewish Museum IS an art museum, and the gift shop is much broader than Judaica with much jewelry, objects of the home, art reproductions, etc. For example, there are objects in the shop from the current exhibition of the work of Kehinde Wiley, whose work explores people of diverse ethnicities and religions in Israel. Here is a Wiley-designed skateboard deck.

Guggenheim Museum - Their shop is another one of my favorites. It features work inspired by their collections and temporary exhibitions, as well as inspired by their famous Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building. As you would expect from an institution of this stature, the web shop is quite robust and east to navigate. Pictured is a unique cuff bracelet inspired the signature rotunda of the building.

Whitney Museum - Can't talk about MoMA and the Guggenheim, and not mention the Whitney. The Whitney also has a great store, and a good selection on their Web site. For whatever reason, though, I have to admit their shop has never resonated quite as much with me. I will highlight this book however, because my daughter Esme got this book as a gift when she was born, and she absolutely loved the images - especially Damien Hirst's "dots".

American Folk Art Museum - Though the American Folk Art Museum sadly recently lost their building on West 53rd Street (designed by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien who also designed the new Barnes on the Parkway in Philadelphia), which was sold to the Museum of Modern Art, they still exist in their second space on Columbus Avenue right across from Lincoln Center. That site has a lovely little gift shop with a great assortment of folk-art-centric items.

El Museo del Barrio - Mentioning it because it is a nice little shop, and very targeted in its focus, as is the museum. However, there is no online store.

Studio Museum in Harlem - Also a very small, very targeted shop. Somewhat more of an online presence than El Museo, but still requires a trip to really see the full selection. And you should be visiting in person anyway!

Neue Galerie - I LOVE this shop, probably because I also love the museum, which is a relatively new, highly specialized boutique museum founded by Ronald Lauder and Serge Sabarsky with a focus on early 20th C. German and Austrian art and design. If you love the work of Klimt, Schiele and Josef Hoffman and their ilk, you will love this place, and you will love the shop. There is a great online shop, as well as a physical shop. Only challenge, the reproduction household and decorative objects and jewelry, which are exquisite, are also very pricey. And if you REALLY want to immerse yourself in the ambiance of this era, take in the cabaret series at Cafe Sabarsky.

Another specialized "niche" museum like Neue Galerie, with a focus on Himalayan art is the Rubin Museum of Art. The Rubin also has a great little gift shop, which has apparently just been "re-branded" and combined with their dining operation as "Serai". There is currently no online store. Also like Neue Galerie they have created a great cafe and line-up of evening programming - a chance to see the art, maybe hear some music, have a drink and some food, AND check out the shop.

Used to love the shop of the Dahesh Museum, when it was on Madison Avenue in the old IBM Gallery space, but it is gone; their restaurant on the second floor was also a hidden gem. HOWEVER, the online shop still exists, and a new physical location is planned soon for Hudson Square in Manhattan.

I was going to include the Lincoln Center gift shop, that used to be in the Concourse level under the plaza, but can't find any mention of it online, and have not been there in a few years, so perhaps it has closed. It is too bad, because while museum gift shops abound, performing arts gift shops are very hard to come by. In Philadelphia, the Kimmel Center closed their shop not long ago and is replacing it with a restaurant. The Juilliard School, however, does have a great gift shop, so I am giving them a shout-out and including them here. The stock is mostly the usual college name emblazoned hoodies, t-shirts, mugs, etc., but also some performing arts-themed gifts, as well as sheet music.

Next up on the tour, a highly personal tour of similar shops around the country, based purely on where I have happened to visit over the past few years.

UPDATED: A Guide to Arts and Culture Gift Shops in Philadelphia (Museum Shops and Beyond!)

2012-04-23T15:50:00.000-04:00

Note: This was originally posted about six months ago, and with the holiday season upon us, I figured it was time to update and repost! The tourism web site UWISHUNU (from the Greater Philadelpia Tourism Marketing Corporation) has also recently published its guide to Philadelphia Museum gift shops, which is available here. Happy shopping!

I have been a huge fan of museum and other arts organization gift shops for years. My work has given me the opportunity to explore lots of organizations, in NY, Philadelphia, and to some extent all across the country. Some are well known - others are hidden gems. The best ones have excellent buyers that find products relevant to the exhibitions, collections or presentations of the institution, but also stock unique artisinal creations by artists, craftspeople and designers that have a sense of place or direct connection to the organization's artistic focus. I am not talking about t-shirts and other logo-emblazoned merchandise, or touristy "tchotchkes" - but sources of high-quality, interesting, beautiful products that make great gifts or personal treats.

So here is my informal survey - apologies in advance for anyone left out. I have not been everywhere, and as noted this is not a journalistic comprehensive survey, but idiosyncratic. My hope is that readers can comment and share their own ideas. Maybe over time this can grow into a useful guide - perhaps a blog or website of its own. I know the logical thing to do would be to post this at the start of "holiday" season, and perhaps I will re-post in the fall after some further refinement and "input."

Except where noted all of the gift shops I am highlighting have web presences, and the links are specifically to the website of the store. But from my experience, most museum store websites are a shadow of the store itself. Merchandise is simply too frequently changing, and sometimes too extensive, to allow the web site to encompass all the goodies. Where possible, visit in person. I also encourage exploring the many smaller gift shops that don't have web sites, but because this blog is web-based I have used the availability of a web link as a criteria for inclusion.

I am starting with my current home for the past several years, Philadelphia, which just by itself is quite an impressive collection. I also have written two other installemnts - about New York City museum/arts gift shops, followed by the rest of the country.

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Philadelphia Museum of Art - PMA has an excellent gift shop (or more accurately, shops), and last year also added a "Philadelphia Produces Original Design" pop-up shop exclusively highlighting local artists. In the main building you will find the large main gift shop, a smaller Annex shop featuring more jewelry and textiles/clothing, a "balcony" shop featuring steeply discounted items, and across the street in the Perelman building is a smaller more design-oriented shop. In addition there are usually specialty shops featuring merchandise thematically linked to whatever the current major exhibition is. A current highlight in the gift shop is a large selection of vintage Russel Wright ceramic ware.

The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts - has a really lovely gift shop - "Portfolio" - which has the advantage of being very accessible just north of City hall on Broad Street, located in their newer Hamilton Building. There is also a new-ish Alumni Gallery in the original Furness building that features the work of PAFA alums that is for sale. An example of a PAFA exclusive: men's ties based on the famous Tiffany-Parish "Dream Garden" mosaic mural. Also, of note: "banner bags" made from recycled advertising banners from the Center City District, laundered and made into bags by a program of the Department of Corrections and another vocational program.

The Fabric Workshop and Museum - also has a great shop, not surprisingly drawing on their leadership as a textile-based institution. Another special strength of the shop is limited edition artist multiples created by artists-in-residence. Love this "Dash" tote bag by the artist Jun Kaneko, who has designed productions for the Opera Company of Philadelphia, and whose large-scale sculpture has been exhibited in the City Hall courtyard and elsewhere around town.

AIA - located conveniently right next store to the Fabric Workshop is the headquarters of the American Institute of Architect's Philadelphia chapter, and they have a great shop ("Bookstore + Design Center") that has a special emphasis on architecture and design. Great design-oriented toys for kids, especially little budding architects and designers. Plus they carry the Philadelphia city map tie that I love and often wear (though I got it at the gift shop of the National Building Museum in Washington DC).

Print Center - a great entry point for art collecting is the world of prints and "multiples" - art produced in a limited edition. The Print Center's print store, at the back of their gallery, is a great place to explore the world of print collecting, across a wide range of prices, including much affordable work. They also stock books and other gift items.

Clay Studio - Their shop adjoins their art gallery space in their building in the heart of Old City. A very popular First Friday destination. The gift shop includes everything from fairly pricey works of collectible ceramic art, to lower proceed mugs, plates, tiles and other great works of functional ceramic art.

Center for Art in Wood - A new addition to the great Philly arts org gift shop world, this is the new name of the Wood Turning Center, and their new home in Old City, right near the Clay Studio, is exquisite. Anyone going in thinking they will see some pedestrian wooden bowls is in for a delightful surprise. This is truly art that happens to use the medium of art, carving, lathe-work, etc. as its medium. The space includes a large gallery/museum space, and an adjoining store, similar to the Clay Studio. For anyone working in the medium of wood, the shop offers books, tools and other resources, but it also a wide array of works of art in wood, from small and modestly price, to true works of art with prices to match. the website really only scratches the surface.

The Art Shop at Moore College of Art & Design. The Art Shop is a venue for Moore alumnae and students to sell their creations to the public. Artists are current students getting their feet wet in the business of art, emerging alumnae trying to make a name for themselves in Philadelphia, and seasoned alumnae who have been working their entire careers as artists. Pictured here is a silk tunic designed and printed by Harshita Lohia ('02). You can browse our online store, but as with most of the other shops cited here, if you’re in Philadelphia, you should visit the shop (which is at Moore College of Art & Design, on 20th St and the Parkway)!

National Museum of American Jewish History - Another relatively new addition, the gift shop of NAMJH has become the premiere Judaica shop in the region, as far as I know. Need an exquisite artist designed mezuzah, seder plate or menorah? This is your place. They also carry jewelry, books, children's items, etc. (There is also a small Judaica section in PMA's gift shop.)

University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology - The museum itself is too often noted, with justification, as one of Philadelphia's best kept secrets. Considered to be perhaps the second most important museum of its kind in the world, behind the British Museum, it has a gift ship that focuses on its collections of Egyptian, Classical, African, Mesoamerican, Mesoptamia, the Silk Road, and other cultures from around the world. From the current Maya show, can't resist sharing this image of a terra cotta statue of a Mayan princess, available at the shop. Hopefully the world will not come to an end this December!

And the newest addition of note is The Barnes Foundation which has a relatively small but great gift shop at the Barnes on the Parkway (downstairs), and also has a great shop on its web site. Find everything from prints, posters and books, to jewelry and other objects inspired by the collection. Even some of the distinctive metalwork displayed with the art is available in reproduction at the shop. Pictured is a mug featuring a reproduction of a Barnes sketch of one of his famous "ensembles."

Institutions with gift shops of varying degrees of extensiveness but WITHOUT any real web access, include Please Touch children's museum (large, wonderful, children's toy and book resource but nothing online), Taller Puertorriqueno, African American Museum and Woodmere Art Museum. If you are into animals, the Philadelphia Zoo has a great shop - not so extensive online. So don't forget about museums whose gift shops are not yet online. As I noted in my intro, these shops are really best perused in person anyway.

I would be remiss if I did not mention that Philadelphia is also home to many art/craft shows fairs that are great opportunities to find wonderful gifts, objects for your home, art for your walls, etc. None of these resources are available online - you need to go to the shows to see and buy the work. This includes

Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show - Presented every year by the Women's Committee and Craft Show Committee of PMA to benefit the Museum, this show takes place in the fall at the Convention Center. This year it will be held November 8-12, 2012. In 2011 1,300 artists applied to be exhibited and 195 were selected. The quality is extremely high - this is truly craft that rises to the level of art.

Art Star Craft Bazaar - This is show that is organized by the Art Star art/fine craft store in Northern Liberties (which is open all year and is itself a great destination for mostly locally-produced artist-designed and made products). The next show is Saturday, May 12th & Sunday, May 13th, 11-6pm, at The Great Plaza at Penn's Landing, where 140 artists will be showing.

Art for the Cash Poor - An annual event organized by the nonprofit organization InLiquid, held at the Crane Arts Building, that makes a wide array of fine and functional art and craft available for purchase at very affordable prices. The next event takes place on June 9th and 10th, from Noon to 6. The event is block-party style, with refreshments, music, and is very family-friendly. It also uses the outdoor space at Crane as well.

Philadelphia Art Alliance - This venerable Rittenhouse Square institution has recently enhanced its focus on fine craft. Many of their shows involve work for sale, and they periodically have special shows of "wearable art" and jewelry. Unfortunately, they don't really appear to have a web-based shop. Their "Shop on the Square" benefit shop/sale unfortunately just ended (12/3-9 - keep it in mind for next year!)

For the scientifically inclined, we have The Franklin Institute, with great science-themed gifts, including a wonderful selection for children. And right nearby there is the Academy of Natural Sciences, now part of Drexel University, which also has a gift shop, though not a web component.

For you gardeners, Morris Arboretum has a nice gift shop, though it does not have web sales, and if we extend out to the region, Longwood Gardens has a very large, well-stocked gift shop, including periodic plant sales (as does Morris Arboretum) though you would not know it from the web site, which has a very limited selection. The annual Philadelphia Flower Show, of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society incorporates an extensive marketplace of vendors and gifts, some of which are linked to whatever the show's theme is that year. They do have an online giftshop so you don't have to wait until next year to do your Flower Show shopping. They also have a special "pop-up" holiday gift shop in Chestnut Hill open through 12/23!

Doing your holiday shopping from museum giftshops and local stores/fairs that feature the work of local artisans and artists is one of the best ways you can "do well by doing good" - support your local arts groups and artists AND give gifts that are truly unique and creative.

Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia Finalists Announced

2012-01-10T11:31:00.000-05:00

The Knight Foundation today announced the 55 finalists in the Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia. These applications were chosen from the 1,267 application submitted. The ideas cover a huge range, and were submitted by arts organizations of all disciplines and sizes, as well as by many individual artists and creative business-people.

Collectively the ideas represent a great expression of the creative energy and entrepreneurial spirit in Philadelphia. With I think maybe one exception (Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra?), this is a totally new group of organizations and individuals from those selected last year. Would love to see ALL these projects happen, but each of these finalists now goes to the next round where they must submit a full proposal. If last year is a guide, roughly half of these projects will actually be funded.

The group ranges from pretty large scale - the Janet Echelman public art piece that will be integrated into the new Dilworth Plaza design - to an individual who proposes to create a micro-grant program for artists, to projects targeting such immigrant populations as Lao, Liberian and Latino.

You can access the full list of finalists here. Congratulations to all of them!

Cultural Journalism - Alive and Well in Philadelphia? (Or At Least Not Dead...)

2011-12-08T13:59:00.001-05:00

Much has been written about the decline of cultural journalism in America, an outgrowth of the larger challenges being faced in the journalism sector. The now defunct Columbia University National Arts Journalism Program published a study in 2003 "Reporting the Arts II" that followed the original "Reporting the Arts" that was published in 1999. RTAII found that during this period when the number of arts organizations was growing, editorial coverage of the arts was flat or shrinking in most markets. Philadelphia was one of the cities studied and here is the link to the Philadelphia section of the report. The big news at that time was a dramatic decline in the average length of arts and culture stories, though the number of stories remained steady. And perhaps it is not a coincidence that the National Arts Journalism Program itself at Columbia now longer exists

Now the Knight Journalism program has partnered with the National Endowment for the Arts to launch the Knight/NEA Community Arts Journalism Challenge, designed to find a solution to how cultural journalism can survive and even flourish in an environment where many communities have lost their daily newspapers - the primary source of arts media coverage - or seen a sharp decline in the space devoted to the arts, as well as number of arts journalists employed. Five proposals were funded with $20,000 grants to further develop their ideas, and three organization will get an additional $80,000 for implementation. One of the selected ideas was in Philadelphia: a partnership between the Philadelphia Daily News and Drexel University to expand arts coverage by using Drexel student journalists to generate some of their content, called "Art Attack." This effort is already underway.

But I have to say, for all the talk of gloom and doom in local cultural journalism, I believe Philadelphia is faring pretty well, and we should not lose sight of that. Yes, our daily newspapers have struggled, and, yes, I am sure it is a challenge for the remaining arts beat writers. I suspect the writing staff has been reduced, perhaps compensation cut, column inches reduced. Yet, robust and engaging reporting and criticism is still happening and a very high level. The recent three part series of articles by Peter Dobrin on the Curtis Institute is a great example of that. Here are links to the first article, the second article, and the third article. That is a lot of "ink" for in-depth coverage of a classical music education story. But even more notable, is that all this coverage is clustered under a multi-media area of the Inquirer's Website called The Curtis Factor, which includes even more content, including video as well as a new piece of music commissioned by the paper from a Curtis composer as part of the story. I can't remember ever hearing of a newspaper commissioning a piece of music as part of a story.

We also have at the Inquirer and Daily News excellent reporters like Stephan Salisbury, who covers general stories about the arts that have elements of policy, civic and community issues, etc. Not to mention writers/critics like Howard Shapiro, David Patrick Stearns, Inga Saffron, Wendy Rosenfield, Toby Zinman, Carrie Rickey, Molly Eichel, Ed Sozanski, Gary Thompson (and all those Drexel students participating in the Art Attack program). I know I am missing some - apologies and please don't hold it against me, whoever you are! We even had the Inquirer recently publish an editorial citing our recent Number One ranking for Culture from Travel + Leisure and calling on policy makers to "face up to the need to create a sustainable funding source for the cultural assets that, even with strained government and corporate help, manage to earn so much praise." This was the second such arts-centric editorial in the past few months, the first being inspired by the recent Portfolio report issued by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance.

And then there is the cultural coverage offered by such other print publications as Philadelphia Weekly, Metro Philadelphia, the Tribune, City Paper, Al Dia and Philadelphia Magazine. Most of them offer both reviews as well as thoughtful and important longer pieces such as the recent profile in Philly Mag by Stephen Fried (and most also have listings). A new arrival is JUMP Philly magazine which covers the local music scene, with occasional forays into other art forms. And I am not even mentioning the many regional newspapers and magazines that also cover Philadelphia's cultural scene.)

On the Web, radio and TV we have Peter Crimmins at WHYY radio, as well as the arts-related coverage offered by Newsworks, a program of WHYY. On WHYY-TV we have FridayArts, a wonderful arts-focused news magazine program. Also on the radio at WRTI we have Jim Cotter and Susan Lewis and the "Creatively Speaking" program. While not journalism per se we have excellent representation on the radio in terms of paying attention to local musical artists in their airplay from WHYY, WRTI and WXPN. in addition, WXPN has their "The Key" program specifically covering the local music scene.

We have Websites and blogs like Broad Street Review, ArtBlog, and LocalArtsLive. Libby Rosof and Roberta Fallon at The Art Blog, in addition to their blog, also produce a regular audio podcast and video content.(Their ArtBlog radio takes place via Newsworks). And in addition to my blog, and the sites cited above, there are countless other blogs covering and commenting on the Philadelphia cultural scene. I am not going to get into the larger argument over whether such blogs constitute journalism, but they certainly help add to the dialogue, spark conversation and promote interest in cultural activities.

Is it perfect? Of course not. Is the community always happy with the quality and/or nature of the coverage they get? I doubt it. I don't mean to minimize the mighty challenges being faced by cultural journalism and journalists.

But my sense is that compared to other communities we are doing pretty well in terms of media coverage of arts and culture, both in terms of quality and quantity. It is a diverse media universe that encompasses both traditional print and broadcast media, as well as growing web-based and other media. Is it just that the gloom and doom sweeping the country has just not hit us yet? Perhaps, but I think something else is going on. I think the scrappiness and ingenuity that is part of Philadelphia's culture, and informs our arts and creative business community, is also reflected in our cultural journalism. Stuff is percolating here. "Legacy" publications are working to find new models. New efforts on the web - and even in print, like JUMP - are popping up. Entrepreneurs are somehow finding a way to make it work. And I think we - the cultural policy and arts workers - need to take a moment to acknowledge the efforts of our cultural journalists, even if we don't always agree with them. Our relationship with them is symbiotic - we need each other. And their efforts every day help make the Philadelphia cultural scene as robust and dynamic as it is.

Note: in the links above, for general interest publications I have tried where possible to link to the cultural coverage area of their website.

Philadelphia Ranked #1 for Culture by Travel + Leisure

2011-10-28T17:47:00.000-04:00

Every year Travel + Leisure magazine runs a poll as part of its "America's Favorite Cities" feature. Readers of the magazine and visitors to their Web site are invited to rate cities on a wide array of criteria, both their own city as well as other cities they visit.

It is exciting news in Philadelphia that in 2011, this poll resulted in Philadelphia being named by visitors the #1 city in the nation for Culture. This is quite a coup, given the competition and how Philadelphia has ranked in the past. In 2010 we ranked #10 for culture. Here is the link to the 2011 results.

Now, the survey is really not scientific, but it still is a great barometer of the growing stature and recognition of the cultural scene in Philadelphia, which encompasses both arts and heritage. There are four sub-categories in "Culture": Historical sites/monuments, where we ranked #1 (up from #6); Theatre/performing arts, where we ranked #5 (up from #18); Classical music, where we ranked #2 (up from #10); and Museums/galleries, at #5 (up from #8). Live (non-classical) music is a category under "Nightlife" which also includes bars, singles scene, cocktails, etc. In this category we were up from 28 to 9.

So Culture is not the only area where Philadelphia made a big leap in the rankings, though it is the only area where we are now #1. In "Food, Drink and Restaurants" the city went from #22 to #3. In "Shopping" Philadelphia went from #30 (out of 35) to #5, and in the creative economy-related sub-category of "home decor and design" we rose from 29 to 9.

What is also gotten a lot of attention is the perception that the survey also ranks Philadelphia as relatively unwelcoming and dirty and Philadelphians as unattractive and unstylish. While there is some truth to that take on the ratings, there is also a lot more nuance. On the category "Quality of Life and Visitor Experience" we went from 31 to 18, with big improvements in "public transit and pedestrian friendliness" and in "public parks and outdoor access." Under the "People" category, in "Diversity" we went from 20 to 5, and in "Stylish" we went form 32 to 17. In "athletic/active" we went from 33 to 21, but it is important to note there are no East Coast cities in the top ten, which include places like Denver, San Diego, Seattle, Portland and Austin, known for their outdoorsy, athletic lifestyles. And yes, under "attractive" we are #25, but that is an increase from 33 last year. And, yes, we are #30 for "cleanliness", but in 2010 we were #34, and cities like New York City, Baltimore, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Dallas , Miami and Memphis are also in the bottom ten in this category. W can't be in the top for everything.

Faced off "head to head" - a cool feature of the T+L web site, Philadelphia tops NYC, LA, Boston, Chicago, DC and Miami, some of our top competitors both for tourism and talent. The only other major City that seem to "beat" Philly in a head-to-head match-up for over-all rankings is San Francisco.

Another factor that bears mentioning is that Philadelphia is one of the few - if not only - cities where the residents consistently rank the City lower than visitors. Even in Culture, our ranking by residents puts us at #3 (tied with DC and Boston) as compared to #1 by visitors. This is clearly the much-discussed negativity about itself that still persists in Philadelphia. It is not a coincidence that the recent "Creative Connectors" project of Leadership Philadelphia, which selected 76 people as the leaders in connecting the creative sector, found that roughly 70% of the "connectors" were people that had moved to Philadelphia. This challenge of the City's negative self-perception was even evidenced in the press coverage of the great news about the Travel + Leisure ranking. In the Daily News, the story did not explicitly mention that we were rated #1, or what a significant leap this was in the ranking, and it also paired the news by emphasizing we were "bashed for being dirty, dangerous and home to some rather grumpy residents." We seem incapable of accepting good news without pairing it with a "yeah, but..."

On a more serious note, I also think we need to consider that the reason Philadelphia residents may rate their own city lower than visitors, is that they do not see the same City as visitors. They take our cultural and other assets for granted and are often unaware of the depth and breadth of what is here, in their own backyard. We are now discussing with the Greater Philadelphia Tourism and Marketing Corporation (GPTMC) and others some ideas about how we could better promote the city's assets to residents as effectively as we are selling the city to visitors. And while they are probably not the residents who filled out the Travel + Leisure survey, we also have vast numbers of residents who through poverty and lack of education and opportunity are not able to take advantage of our rich cultural assets. That also needs to be addressed.

Bravo to the cultural community, our artists, GPTMC, the Convention and Visitor's Bureau, the City Representative's Office, The Center City District and other BIDs and CDCs, and everyone else involved in both producing and maintaining our cultural assets, and communicating them to our visitors. This is a great city, that is only getting better every day.

Thoughts on Time, Age and Children

2011-09-12T13:39:00.000-04:00

I know that my blog is usually pretty tightly focused on issues of professional interest, around arts, culture and creative economy. But as many readers of my blog may know, on August 27th I also became the father of a new baby daughter, and that has gotten me thinking about the nature of time and aging, especially as a somewhat "older" dad.

Dana Carvey - Grumpy Old Man

I feel sometimes like Dana Carvey's "Grumpy Old Man" character on the old SNL. (Here is a link for those that don't remember: http://www.hulu.com/watch/ad/57340) I know it is a stereotype at this point, but sometimes I am just astonished at how much the world has changed in my adult life, and with the accelerating pace of change it is mind-boggling to think how the world may be transformed by the time my newborn is an adult.

Xerox Telecopier, circa 1975

I am not that old and yet I remember working in an office - a United States Congressman - where some of the first modern fax (or telecopier) machines were installed. They used that old thermal paper that curled up and smelled like something was burning while a fax was coming in, and the system only worked with paired machines - we could only send faxes between our own offices in DC and NY. Someone would make a phone call and then you would have to manually put the receiver in the cradle of the fax machine. As primitive as that all sounds now it was a revelation at the time. To have a speechwriter type a draft of the speech in DC, fax it to NY, have the Congressman edit it and then fax it back for finalizing: brilliant!

IBM 8088, circa 1981

Just a few years after that I was the Managing Director of the Vineyard Theatre in NY when a helpful board member bought for me one of these newfangled IBM personal computer things - the original IBM 8088, with MS-DOS. You had to "swap floppies" - load one floppy drive to "boot up" the operating system and install your software into memory (Lotus 123 or Wordperfect as I recall), then remove that disk to install the disk with your files on it. Sometimes if you executed a command, like spell check, you would ask to remove your data disk, install a second program disk, and then swap again. The monitor was the old monochrome "green screen" variety, and you had to learn how to use that tauntingly simple but often infuriatingly cryptic "command prompt": c:\. And yet, as primitive as this sounds, in light of what we have to work with today, it was revolutionary at the time in terms of my productivity. I could do MAIL MERGES - send out dozens, or even hundreds - of personalized letters to donors or subscribers. I could create spreadsheets that allowed me to enter a formula changing the assumption of percent of paid seating capacity sold from 65% to 75% and have the entire income statement recalculate numbers. (Of course, I printed those spreadsheets on a dot-matrix printer with pin-feed striped ledger paper - another now defunct technology!) This literally eliminated hours and hours of work with green ledger paper and an old fashioned adding machine. There are just a couple of examples of how this then very new, now very primitive, technology, was in fact a miraculous productivity booster - things we take for granted now used to be onerous chores.

Treo 300 - 2002

The list goes on and on - the first computerized theatrical lighting systems, database and contact management software, e-mail, the Internet, the Web, my first "Palm Pilot" Personal Digital Assistant, before there even were smartphones, let alone cell phones, followed by my first Treo 300 smart phone in 2002 - again, in its time, a miraculous productivity booster - I could be out of the out of the office at meetings for a full day and still get email, check my schedule, look up addresses and phone numbers, make notes, AND make and receive phone calls.

I still remember when my oldest daughter was maybe about 4 - perhaps 1990 or so - and got a birthday gift of a toy typewriter. She pulled it out of the box and exclaimed "Wow - a computer!" - I knew then that the days of the already dying IBM Selectric were surely VERY numbered. In her world "keyboard" already meant "computer". Typewriters were for the museum.Now that 20-something daughter is part of the generation that is steadily dropping their use of e-mail in favor of texting and social media.

So the world my new child enters may be radically transformed within just a few short years, in ways that if I could predict I would have had the success of Steve Jobs.

And yet - AND YET - think how much still remains the same,, and how constant the arts remain in our humanity. Symphony orchestras still make the original "wall of sound" (due respect to Phil Spector who brought it to pop music), and there is no substitute for listening to this music live in a concert hall. We still hold our children, and talk to them, and sing to them, and dance around with them. Artists make art (yes, some now use technology in their art and the nature of visual art is changing - no disconnect between art and technology) and many of those actually still use paint and canvas, pen and paper (Claes Oldenburg chose the paintbrush as the motif for his "Paint Torch" sculpture because the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts - PAFA - is an art school and museum still rooted in the tradition of painting.) We still glory in planting and tending gardens, and in transforming fresh ingredients into delicious home-cooked meals in the kitchen, and eating food communally, with family and friends. We still ride bicycles - an invention of the 19th century - to get around our 21st Century city, and increasingly recognize the practicality and utility of this "ancient" mode of transportation/recreation. The Knight Foundation's Soul of the Community study found that the things that attaches us to place are communal social gathering opportunities like the arts, the physical beauty of the community - like the built environment, parks and green space, and openness. Might not the findings have been similar in Ancient Athens?

Finally, while it also has become trite to opine that "40 is the new 30", "60 is the new 50" etc., there is truth to the fact that we are living longer (and in better physical shape) and now view what used to be a time of "winding down" or retirement, as a time vibrancy and change. WE change personally now, reinvent ourselves, the way technology is so rapidly transformed. People change careers, move to new cities, start new families, learn new skills and art forms in a way that would have been unthinkable just a few decades ago. I still play basketball three times a week, and intend to keep doing it as look as exercise and ligaments (and luck) will allow me to. And I intend to be there at my newborn daughter's college graduation and maybe even celebrate with a little on one-on-one hoops with her. I don't think this is just a creation of Boomers who want to extend their middle age indefinitely. I think this is the new normal.

Musings of a sleep-deprived new/old father!

A-Plus Art - Student Art Celebrated at City Hall

2011-08-23T17:24:00.000-04:00

Antonio Williams, Carver High School, 10th Grade

The newest show at the Art Gallery at City Hall is "A-Plus Art." This exhibition continues a tradition we began last year, where we partner with the School District of Philadelphia to cull the best art from their annual summer art exhibition at the School District headquarters (2,000 pieces!) and select about 50 pieces to be exhibited at City Hall.

This show once again highlights the extraordinary artwork being done by our young Philadelphia students: their dedication, talent, and discipline. Their work is made possible by the dedication and skill of their art teachers, and by the support of their parents. Without all these elements success is nearly impossible. The work covers a a wide array of ages/grades, and also many different neighborhoods of the City. (See the map and list of schools below)

The exhibit will culminate in a panel discussion on arts education on arts education issues, as well as a closing reception where every young artist will be presented with a certificate from the Mayor, recognizing the honor of being exhibited in City Hall.

Ricky Lee, Hancock Elementary, 2nd Grade

I blogged a few weeks ago about why arts education is important, a piece that was later adapted for Lorene Cary's blog. I encourage those who have not seen it to take a look (here is the link), if you need to strengthen the case that arts education is crucial not just for artistic and social reasons, but for economic development reasons as well. Recent unfortunate incidences of anti-social behavior by young people have obscured the fact that we have vast numbers of talented, dedicated, engaged young citizens in this City. The arts can play an important role in the lives of young people, and frankly resources invested in arts education in the long run save money that would otherwise have to be invested in law enforcement and prisons. Given the current challenges at the School District, we need informed and passionate advocates for the importance of arts education now, more than ever.

If you want to be inspired about the future of our City, represented by the young people who ARE the future, come to this show! [Exhibition closes September 30th]

Details:

Art Gallery at City Hall is open Monday-Friday (except holidays) 10-4. It is in Room 116 of City Hall, which can be accessed without going through security. Enter the East portal and turn right into City Hall inside the portal. Gallery will be on your right. The closing reception is September 30th, 4:30-7 PM. And the panel discussion will be in City Hall (room TBD) at 3:30 PM (Check here for more details, call 215-686-9912, or e-mail artincityhall@phila.gov).

Some thoughts on Environmental Art

2011-08-09T18:48:00.000-04:00

Jeanne Jaffe - Little Red Riding Hood as a Crime Scene (Schuylkill Center)

I was able to spend the day earlier this week at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education and spend some time taking in Facts and Fables: Stories of the Natural World, their new art installation. The installation explores how stories - narrative - affect our understanding of nature. The artists are Jeremy Beaudrey, David Dempewolf, Brian Collier, Chad Curtis, Susan Hagen, Blane De St-Croix, and Jeanne Jaffe.

The environmental art department at the Schuylkill Center is a truly important and unique component of Philadelphia's cultural scene - bringing together artists with the resources of naturalists and environmental educators to use art to raise awareness of the environment. Kudo's to Mary Salvante for founding this program, to Jenny Laden for leading it now, and to the Center itself for sustaining this commitment to the role the art can play in fulfilling its mission.

The art is definitely worth a visit, and if you have not yet been to the Center, make the trip. Yet another hidden Philadelphia gem and evidence that this City is filled with more green space and "wilderness' than any other major American City. While there we had an interesting dialogue about the different variations of "art and the environment" - from art that may comment on or illuminate an environmental issue, to art that may actually use the environment in the execution of the piece, or art that is designed to actually impact the environment in a positive way.

A great example of the last category is Mel Chin's "Revival Field" piece, that involved constructing an installation of plants in a contaminated field, plants that were specifically chosen due to their scientifically researched capacity to leach certain contaminants from the soil, naturally, over time.His more recent Fundred Dollar Bill Project, to address soil contamination in New Orleans, while more conceptual and playful, still has as its ultimate goals CHANGING for the better our environment.

Mel Chin - Revival Field

Another example of art that does more than comment on the environment but actually interacts with it would be Soil Kitchen, the temporary installation by the artist collaborative FutureFarmers that the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy brought to Philadelphia earlier this year.

FutureFarmers - Soil Kitchem study

It is important to distinguish this work from the land art movement, like Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty (Smithson in fact coined the term "land art"). Not to do diminish the value of this work. Works like Spiral Jetty and Roden Crater by James Turrell, can have an extraordinary majesty and mystery, and an intimate relationship with nature and light. They are designed to change based on environmental changes and time. But they are not designed to specifically change the environment in a positive way, or even make an environmental statement. My conversation with Jenny Laden and Theresa Rose from my staff got me thinking about this important distinction.

Smithson - Spiral Jetty (from Wikipedia)

The role that artists can play in helping to address environmental and sustainability issues is something of great interest to me and my Office. We have been in discussions with the Mayor's Office of Sustainability about a deeper partnership, and have also been in discussions with the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation about how temporary public art can help raise awareness of, and interest in, the Delaware waterfront, which could also involve exploring wetlands and water quality issues. It is great to have so many great partners and organizations of like mind in Philadelphia (like the Schuylkill Center) - look for lots more great project to come in the coming years!

Deconstructing the Department of Alternative Affairs

2011-07-15T18:03:00.000-04:00

The current exhibition at the Art Gallery at City Hall is called "The Department of Alternative Affairs" and it is a collaboration between three artist collective groups in Philadelphia: Little Berlin, Extra Extra, and FluxSpace. One of the especially vibrant aspects of Philadelphia's visual arts scene is a growing number of artist collectives, some (but not all) of which may also have physical spaces, usually in areas of the City where really affordable space can be found. We thought it would be valuable to invite in three of these collectives and give them the opportunity to figure out how they would like to use the gallery space.

What they have chosen to do is create a new "City agency" for the duration of their exhibit called "The Department of Alternative Affairs" (DAA). This conceit is carried through in the installation of desks and other office equipment in the space, at which members of the groups actually do their work. There are also performative aspects of the installation as well - more info below.

It is an interesting challenge for a public gallery space like this one to present work of this sort of a conceptual nature, and something we debated about a lot. There is probably more explanatory signage than the groups would have preferred, and the artists really wanted to make the DAA as "official" as possible, including an actual City web site, City email addresses, and City ID badges (not something we were able to do - but they found a way to create great "faux" elements that utilize the City seal). I think this tension is healthy. The majority of our visitors are tourists and City workers, or people in the building to deal with a City agency - not a traditional gallery audience. As a result we - and the artists who are sometimes on site - must spend a lot of time talking about the nature of art, and explaining what conceptual art is. Lots of folks peek into the gallery through our glass door - see some desks and chairs and lack of "art" on the walls, and are hesitant to come inside. The show has gotten some nice press coverage from Peter Crimmins on WHYY, as well as from DoN Brewer on Philly Side Arts.

I asked the director of our exhibitions programs, Tu Huyn, to provide his thoughts on the show. Here is what he had to say:

"The only attitude (the only politics--judicial, medical, pedagogical and so forth) I would absolutely condemn is one which, directly or indirectly, cuts off the possibility of an essentially interminable questioning, that is, an effective and thus transforming questioning."
- Jacques Derrida, Points…Interviews 1974-1994

It has been 50 years since Jacques Derrida founded "Deconstruction", a philosophy and rigorous form of textual criticism that breaks apart structured modes of thinking revealing its flawed parts. Through this questioning of the language used to build the foundations of our thinking, we are left with further questions about power and ethics, whether or not a restructuring of the way we think is possible, is the "immediacy" and existential process championed in Modern Art an illusion that is perpetually delayed...on and on? Essentially, the introduction of deconstruction is an important chapter to the evolution of artists, writers, creative people as critics (and self-criticism of institutions) who not only question of the nature of art and its traditions (be it Western), but by doing so open up a questioning of cultural values and social structures. Artists became institutional critics. New structures of thinking emerged, post-structuralists in the age of Postmodernism, Feminism, social activists...the necessary progression of society.

This current exhibit revisits some of these challenges from a generation ago, even using some of its vocabulary, such as "hierarchy/non-hierarchical", "institutional critique" and "structure". So, while the presentation of art isn't traditionally framed by a white wall or a pedestal, it has its historical context, its precedent in the Postmodern era. That does not mean that these questions are irrelevant today even though the institutional critics of the 70s are now well established and accepted by the institutions of museums and the art world. There will always be questions such as: what is art, what it should be, how it can be used, how it is used (as a vehicle, utility, forum...), who should be its authority and whether or not there should be such an entity to begin with, what role art plays in society, what does art do, what is the role of government and the arts, how can art be more accessible, what's the difference between fine art, commercial art, student art and who is to decide on this separation, its quality...on and on? These are ongoing conversations, and they are healthy ones to have.

We are part of government and as Peter Crimmins from WHYY wrote in his article, we are an "agency up to its neck in city bureaucracy and politics." So does an exhibit like this hurt the OACCE, seeing that it can also be regarded as a critique of our government hierarchical structure? I think the opposite, that by allowing these upcoming artists to showcase their ideas about art, the art gallery becomes a forum to discuss these issues and at the same time highlight these three progressive artist-run spaces, their values and alternative approach to the artistic process. We are embracing this emerging, experimental art scene and the overall spirit of artists as collaborators. Their artistic process is a collaborative process, a non-hierarchical structure devoid of the traditional curator. These artists are their own curators, not to mention, they are self-published, their own fundraisers, administrators, cheerleaders, volunteers....That is the other picture that's being presented in this exhibit. As nonprofit, grassroots organizations that are run by artists, they are also proving that even though they do not sell a lot of art or seldom showcase works that are traditional objects worthy of sales, their work do in fact provide a valuable service. The questioning of art traditions, cultural values, hierarchical structures is an old endeavor, but it is still a relevant exercise.

On Mondays, Daniel Wallace from Extra Extra puts on his pagan robe and meditates beside EE's video installation depicting a collection of tension building and collapsing moments, colliding and retreating structures. On WHYY's, Peter Crimmins states that Wallace's Meditation Mondays is a pun on corporate focus groups. While it happens as part of the Department of Alternative Affairs - one can make that connection - but I think it is also reflective or metaphorical of their creative process - art as necessary collapse and reconstitution of ideas. The tension comes from duality, contradictory forces, which can mean many things obviously but Wallace's presence is a break from Western duality and introduces a triangle. The third entity being the artist in reflection and meditation.

The microfilm reader questions the values of technological advances by looking at an obsolete piece of machinery. Some things are lost information is transferred, digitized, such as the character of the newspaper, the advertisements, the elements that capture a time period, etc. FLUXspace is also concerned about the accessibility of art - the mundane object is now placed in a new context as a work of art and has new value, which presents the notion that anything can be regarded as art.

Little Berlin is producing an exhibit called "authorLESSity", which asks anyone to email an image that he or she considers as great art. They will print it out and make an exhibit (in whatever format) during the closing event on July 29th 5-7 pm. They are also signing up other artists to work in the space and form further collaborations.

An end to this experimental collaboration may include further videos by Extra Extra working in the space, building sculptures...We will soon see.

Here is the official description of the show, with all the show details:

The Department of Alternative Affairs

The City of Philadelphia’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy introduces its summer emerging artists exhibition: The Department of Alternative Affairs. Three artist-run collectives from the emerging Kensington art scene present a collaborative project as the new Department of Alternative Affairs. Featured artists from Extra Extra, FLUXspace and Little Berlin are utilizing City Hall’s art gallery as a non-hierarchical workspace to create, perform and educate visitors about their respective organizations and Philadelphia's creative climate.

Participating Artists:

Extra Extra: Derek Frech, Joe Lacina and Daniel Wallace.

FLUXspace: Nike Desis, Angela Jerardi, Susanna Gieske and Warren Miller.

Little Berlin: Kristen Neville-Taylor and Martha Savery (founders), Beth Heinly,
Kelani Nichole, Tim Pannell, Masha Badinter, Tyler Kline and Maria Dumlao.

The Department of Alternative Affairs (DAA) is the second emerging artist show in the Art Gallery at City Hall since the gallery opened in June of 2010. This annual invitation to grass roots arts organizations is an opportunity to sample Philadelphia’s dynamic visual arts scene and to continually gain insight on the creative people behind it. This year, the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy - with assistance from an independent City Hall Exhibitions Advisory Committee - is highlighting artist-run spaces, their values and creative, curatorial processes as an alternative to more traditional presentations and notions of art.

The Art Gallery at City Hall has been transformed into office workspace where members of the DAA are serving a residency. The gallery is a stage for conceptual performances and a platform to educate and discuss the state of today’s artists as administrators, curators and volunteer workers at group-run art spaces operating on shoe-string budgets. It’s an opportunity to recognize their uncompromising, yet collaborative spirit, and their challenge to accepted cultural values and structured modes of thinking. Each organization is presenting an installation of desks (two were created by the artists) and office furniture with unique mission statements. Depending on which artist is on hand, each day may be a different experience for visitors. During their residency, artists may forge collaborations as they interact with City Hall visitors and staff in this experimental process.

“This use of the gallery is a break from the tradition of art presentation and is a reflection of the unique process and sensibility of these three organizations,” says Mary Salvante, Chair of the City Hall Exhibitions Advisory Committee. “It is new ground for the gallery program as it provides an opportunity for the general public to be engaged by the artists and the installation in a nontraditional context.”

The Department of Alternative Affairs has extended gallery hours scheduled for Wednesdays 7/6, 7/13, 7/20, 7/27 from 5 – 8 pm; an Open Web Studio workshop by Little Berlin on Monday, 7/18 from 5 – 8pm. A closing reception, which will be a culmination of their experiences in City Hall will take place on Friday, July 29^th, from 5-7 pm.

To learn more about the Department of Alternative Affairs, visit: http://littleberlin.org/DAA/.

Our Town Grants Announced by NEA

2011-07-12T15:33:00.000-04:00

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) just now announced the recipients of grants under their new "Our Town" arts and placemaking initiative. $6.575 million in grants will go to 51 communities in 34 states that have created public-private partnerships to strengthen the arts while shaping the social, physical, and economic characters of their neighborhoods, towns, cities, and regions. NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman made the announcement during a press conference this afternoon. The full NEA press release and descriptions of all the grantee projects is available here.

I am very excited that the City of Philadelphia (the Office of Arts Culture and the Creative Economy, working with our Commerce Department) has partnered with The Reinvestment Fund (TRF) and University of Pennsylvania’s Social Impact of the Arts Project (SIAP) to secure one of the largest grants awarded, $250,000, to build and launch a Creative Assets Mapping Database for the City of Philadelphia (TRF is the actual grantee). The multi-faceted project will further research related to the relationship between cultural engagement and economic development and will produce a web tool that can inform planning, marketing, policy development and public/ private arts investment strategies. Creation of this geodatabase will allow the City and other cultural leaders to monitor the growth in creative assets and assess their civic, economic and social impacts.

This initiative began with a simple question from Mayor Nutter a couple of years ago - "Can we map all the cultural and creative economy activity in the City and can we then use that tool to drive our policies and decisions?" The answer was that no such tool existed - at least not in a comprehensive enough form - so we began immediately to work with TRF and SIAP, national leaders in studying the impact of the arts at the neighborhood level (more information on their arts work is available here). TRF also operates Policy Map, the leading source of mapped social and demographic data. We were able to secure a small planning grant from the NEA last year and since then have been working to develop our plans for this project.

Our Town grants range from $25,000 to $250,000 and represent a range of rural, suburban, and urban communities with populations ranging from just over 2,000 people to more than 8.2 million people. More than half of the Our Town grants were awarded too communities with a population of less than 200,000, and seven to communities with fewer than 25,000 people. Grants were awarded for planning, design, and arts engagement projects that strengthen arts organizations while increasing the livability of communities across America. By requiring a partnership between local government and an arts or design organization, Our Town encourages creative, cross sector solutions to the challenges facing towns, cities, and the arts community.

There were 447 applicants to this program, and we are truly honored to be one of the 51 grantees. We hope our project will not only help strengthen what we are doing in Philadelphia but also serve as a national model for other communities. MANY other exciting projects funded throughout the country, and I also congratulate all the other grantees. This is another example of the transformative work the NEA is doing now under Rocco Landesman's leadership.

Thoughts on Arts Education as an Economic Development Imperative

2011-06-14T14:05:00.000-04:00

A few days ago I spoke at a reception for the Philadelphia region music education organization Musicopia. Because so many other speakers were already attesting to the value of their work (which IS wonderful - check out their website), I decided I would focus on the larger issue of the value of arts education, with specific emphasis on what sorts of direct impact on a community quality arts education provides. To me, and to those of us in the field, this information, this perspective may seem self-evident. But to many, this may not be the case. A corporate foundation director came up to me afterwards and asked if could share my remarks with her to be distributed to her board, so they could understand the larger civic and economic value of arts education investments.

Unfortunately, I spoke without notes, but I thought it might be helpful to try and recreate my key points on my blog, with links so others can use it if they wish.

Arts education is a crucial civic imperative for an array of reasons, none of which undercut its importance simply as a human right for young people to have the benefit of the arts as part of their educational experience, not just at home (where they may or may not get it) but at school as well.

But why should a funder, a legislator, a business-person care about arts education, especially in these challenging economic times when it can seem like a frill?

Quality arts education has an array of positive social benefits, that translate directly to positive economic benefits. First, there is the area of workforce development. A 21st century economy needs a certain kind of worker. This is NOT just a worker who has done well on standardized tests and is competent in math and English. This is a worker who is strong in so-called "applied" (as opposed to "basic") skills. A young person who is strong in collaboration and teamwork, strong in communication and self-expression, understanding of ambiguity and nuance (it is not a rote, hierarchical, assembly line world anymore; in today's world there is often no "right:" answer - just the best course of action with the information available). These are skills that we KNOW arts education develops. A study done a few years ago by the Conference Board, in partnership with a number of workforce development organizations, called "Are They Really Ready to Work," showed that employers felt that their incoming workers were very poorly prepared in these applied skills, but that they rated the applied skills as the most critically important workforce skills that they needed. A follow up report called "Ready to Innovate" - conducted by the Conference Board in partnership with Americans for the Arts and the American Association of School Administrators - looked at how the views of employers aligned with those of school district leaders. It found a truly overwhelming - nearly unanimous - agreement among both the hirers and the educators that creativity was an increasingly important workplace skill. Those doing the hiring, however, found that they largely cannot find the creative workers they seek. Both employers and educators rate arts study as a very high indicator of creativity (#1 for educators, #2 for business just behind entrepreneurial experience). A recent study by IBM found that creativity was rated as the most important skill for future success as a CEO. I remember speaking at a conference with a very senior executive from a large food service company, who indicated that their HR team found engagement in arts education and arts practice as being the best indicator of success in the workplace - not just for executives and managers, but all the way down to entry-level waitstaff, kitchen workers, etc. They found that workers who played an instrument, acted in plays or were otherwise engaged in the arts were better members of their team, stayed in their job longer, were more productive, and were better at customer service.

And in 2009 Dr. James Catterall, a professor at UCLA, released a study "Doing Well and Doing Good by Doing Art," that followed up 12 years later with 12,000 students studied as part of Champions of Change, an earlier, seminal study of the impact of arts education on youth (also still worthwhile reading!). They found that intensive involvement in the arts in middle and high school is associated with higher levels of achievement and college attainment and also with many indicators of pro-social behavior such as voluntarism and voting. And while they found that intensive involvement in other activities like sports, also had positive outcomes, there were special and stronger results with the arts. In their research they also adjust for socio-economic differences so they are not just measuring the results of students with more advantages attending wealthier schools more likely to provide arts-rich learning.

And anecdotally, we see this in our own City, Philadelphia, and our own youth. Our Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Everett Gillison, sees that the young people engaged in arts education programs like Mural Arts are much less likely to get into trouble, and end up "in the system." Engagement in the arts by ex-offenders - arts education IS a lifelong learning issue - also significantly reduces recitivism. The dollars that we invest in quality arts education programs are not only helping to enrich the lives of our young, not only developing workers that our businesses needs that will help drive our local economy. They are also frankly getting many young people onto a different path in life that will also save our society and economy significant investments in police and prisons.

In effect, the same things that arts education produces in young people that makes them better people, happier human beings, also produces a wide array of social and economic benefits that helps our City. Hence the title of Catterall's study, a play on the "doing well by doing good" philosophy of socially responsible business. The research is clear: investing in arts education is one of the best investments we can possibly make - it builds a 21st century employment-ready workforce that is needed by business; it builds better citizens, more likely to vote and volunteer; it strengthens our communities by producing young people less likely to drop out, less likely to engage in criminal behavior; it makes our schools livelier, engaging, welcoming places of learning, and combined with integrating the arts into other subject areas, fuels the joy of learning and ultimately academic achievement.

In these challenging economic times, education funding and programs are seriously threatened, at the federal level, the state level, and the local level. In this climate, arts education resources are especially at risk, as there is a thoroughly misguided impression that arts education and training in schools is an "extra", a "frill", an "amenity" that is OK to invest in when we are flush, but expendable when purse strings are tightened. Perfectly smart people who are all about data, achievement, competitiveness and jobs, somehow have a blind spot when they support disinvestment in arts education - which actually goes against all their principles.

This is not a partisan issue - arts education should be supported by anyone who cares about a future for all of your young people, and anyone who cares about the health of our local and national economy. Shouldn't that include everyone?

[Note: I know there is much more research out there than the studies I have cited. These are just the studies that came to mind first - this is not an academic paper. Anyone who is interested in more research can go to the Americans for the Arts "Art: Ask for More" advocacy campaign website, which has great concise data, and links to other resources. The site has excellent tools for parents, teachers and other advocates for arts education. Another wonderful research is the Arts Education Partnership.]

Can't get away from that Art Czar nickname!

2011-06-06T12:11:00.000-04:00

This past Friday, our local PBS station, WHYY, profiled the work of me and the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy on its monthly arts news-magazine program, "Friday Arts". The episode also featured a segment on the wonderful Wharton Esherick Museum, The Fruit Guys (a business devoted to promoting fresh fruit as an alternative to junk food in workplaces and schools), and Orchestra 2001 (a contemporary/new music ensemble that is associated with Swarthmore College. The embedded video below only features my segment but I encourage you to click through and watch the entire episode.

Watch the full episode. See more Friday Arts.

It may seem like shameless self-promotion, but since many may have missed the episode, and since those outside of the Philadelphia market were not able to tune in, I thought it would be helpful if I included the segment in my blog. I do think it captures pretty well the work that we are trying to do here. It also highlights some of the initiatives we have tried to support. I thought it might be helpful if in my blog I explain some of the locations of the scenes.

For example, I talk about the importance of DesignPhiladelphia to our efforts to highlight Philadelphia's strong design assets. What may be less evident is that the scenes of a reception in a large very high-ceilinged space with "curtains" of hanging diaphanous shapes, is a DesignPhiladelphia site-specific installation by the artist Aurora Robson in a multi-function space called the Skybox, at 2424 Studios in Fishtown, one of the City's many great creative economy workspaces.

Similarly, there are scenes of me, along with a group of other people, walking through an ornate decayed vacant building with a grand rotunda space. This space is Germantown Town Hall and this was a site visit with our colleagues from Public Property to show the space to the folks from Hidden City as a potential site for that program. Definitely a great building that needs a new, appropriate tenant!

The scenes where I am walking around in a hard hat in a reception at what seems to be a construction site were shot at the under-construction new Barnes on the Parkway. Since the footage was shot a few months ago, the building is, of course, much further along now. There are also some shots of the press conference at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts for the ground-breaking of Lenfest Plaza, the new public space that will connect PAFA's two buildings (and feature a major a major new work of public art by Claes Oldenburg).

There are also some scenes shot in our new Art Gallery at City Hall space. Apologies to those organizations not included in the segment - it was really just chance as to what was going on at the time they were shooting. I am getting a little tired of the Art Czar thing; as I have often said, "look at how it ended up for the Czar - I don't want to end up the same way". But, I suppose it is the nature of the media to grab onto these shorthand phrases. And it should go without saying - but I will say it anyway: even though the focus of this piece is on me, my work would not be possible without: 1) the support and encouragement of a truly great Mayor, 2) the efforts of a very talented and dedicated staff, and 3) an amazing arts, culture and creative community that inspires me every day! For those that are interested, here is an additional segment - a more extended interview on what the "creative economy" is and why it is important: video.whyy.org/video/1965121120/.

Let me know what you think!

What is Philadelphia's "Brand"?

2011-05-03T15:33:00.000-04:00

Patricia Martin, author of RenGen, and an expert on corporate sponsorship and connecting brands with consumers, visited Philadelphia last week to work with some of our leaders in government and tourism who are responsible for marketing the City to potential sponsors. The meeting was organized by the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (thank you GPTMC!), and in addition their staff, and me, also included representatives from the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, the City's Parks and Recreation Department, Historic Philadelphia and others. Pat writes about her Philadelphia visit (which included attendance at the Arts & Business Council's annual luncheon) here. For those of you that don't already follow Pat's blog, consider this a recommendation, and read her "Philadelphia Story" as a first intruduction! I wrote an entry in my blog not that long ago on some recent research she published on how arts groups can better understand and communicate with the Millennial generation.

Part of the discussion involved exploring the "brand" of the City, since in exploring how to better sell City promotions and events to potential corporate sponsors, it is clear that in a sense you are also selling the brand of the City. It was also clear that in all of our individual communications efforts, how we talk about the City in effect helps create and hone that brand, and there is much to be gained by being more strategic and coordinated in our language and messaging.

There was a really engaging discussion about how Philadelphia is perceived both internally and externally and how we can better communicate our core assets.

There was general agreement that as a City we have a "culture of ingenuity", and that this framework can be a useful construct to link our heritage (which essentially involved "inventing" America and the modern democracy, as well as Benjamin Franklin's famous spirit of intellectual curiosity and invention) to our 19th C. period as the "workshop to the world" when we were about designing and making just about every kind of product imaginable, to our current creative energy that ties together our arts & culture scene with technology and science. Think about this past week with PIFA, Philly Tech Week and the Philadelphia Science Festival all happening at the same time - how cool was that?. Our history is not frozen in time like Williamsburg VA, or Machu Picchu, but integrated into and still part of a living, breathing, creative metropolis.

We also discussed that we have a population that "looks like the future" - our increasing diversity mirrors the demographic shifts taking place throughout the country. Not only do we have ethnic diversity but we also have a huge Millennial population, by virtue of our array of colleges and universities in the region - a total of about 300,000 FTE students in the region attending over 100 different colleges. Yet we are not just a "college town." We also have a robust population of Boomers, Seniors and young families.

And - to put it bluntly - "we are NOT New York City." By this we meant that we have many unique assets that preclude measuring ourselves in relationship to New York. We are not "the sixth borough." Yet our geographic location between New York City and Washington DC, combined with an excellent international airport clearly offers significant benefits from a business attraction, tourism and branding perspective. Our "place" does matter. This is not a knock on NY - I still love NY and love spending time there. This language is a useful shorthand, but Philadelphia needs to do a better job communicating what it IS without resorting to having to say what it is not.

It is interesting to have Pat's take on this as an expert, informed, "outsider" who has the opportunity to travel all over the country and can view Philadelphia's assets and image with that informed dispassionate perspective.

Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy Testifies Before City Council

2011-04-04T10:16:00.000-04:00

On Monday, March 28th, I testified before City Council as part of the FY12 budget process. I was joined by Moira Baylson, Deputy Cultural Officer. The Office staff, and other cultural leaders such as Tom Kaiden of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, attended as audience (and moral support). In the end, the hearing was relatively free of contention, which in these times is always a good thing. However, since so much work goes into preparing the testimony, and it serves as a good report on the past year's activities and plans for the coming year, I am summarizing the testimony here, with a link at the end for a fuller version.

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I am honored to have the opportunity to report on the Office’s accomplishments over the past year, and to explain how our Office plans to use and leverage City funds in Fiscal Year 2012. After spending two years reorganizing programs and staff from multiple departments, we are pleased to provide testimony from our new home, right here in City Hall. The opening of our new office and gallery in June of 2010 has allowed our staff to work together in one location and for the first time, has provided the public direct access to our office. With this change, we have gained tremendous momentum in the services and programs we offer to Philadelphia and in serving our larger mission: to support and promote arts, culture and creative industries; and to develop partnerships and coordinate efforts that weave arts, culture and creativity into the economic and social fabric of the city.

In Fiscal Year 2011, the Philadelphia Cultural Fund will distribute a little over $1.6 million to 200 Philadelphia cultural organizations. The Fund’s Youth Enrichment Program, in its second year, will distribute an additional $100,000 in grants. Last year the program distributed $350,000 in grants to eight organizations with exemplary youth arts programs such as Art Reach, Asian Arts Initiative and Kùlú Mèlé African American Dance Ensemble. Although down 42.5% from 2010, the Fund continues to achieve its mission of re-granting City funds to hundreds of deserving cultural organizations throughout our Philadelphia neighborhoods.

The African American Museum in Philadelphia, the first museum funded and built by a city to help preserve African American culture, celebrated its 35th Anniversary this year. The Office, through an annual grant of roughly $230,000 helps to ensure that the museum has adequate resources to deliver high quality programming and exhibitions to the public. Through its core exhibit, “Audacious Freedom: African Americans in Philadelphia 1776-1876,” the Museum details the freedom journey of African Americans in Philadelphia..

In December 2010, with funding from the William Penn Foundation, the Office released the report Creative Vitality in Philadelphia: A Three Year Index 2006-2008. Highlights from the report include a 7% increase in Philadelphia’s creative health from 2006-2008; a 70% stronger creative community than the national benchmark; and a nonprofit cultural sector five times stronger than the national benchmark. Areas identified for improvement, such as creative sector employment, which was 15% below the national benchmark in 2008, are priority areas for the Office in FY12. In January of this year we held a Town Hall meeting, which was attended by over 150 people. The Office shared the findings of the report and solicited input into how the City can better promote, unite and invest in the creative sector. We are currently investigating these recommendations, which will guide our strategy for the development of programs and policies that serve and add capacity to the creative sector.

We have also been working on how to better communicate about our programs and services, and this year will launch an official website, through the pro-bono services of Electronic Ink, that will better connect all City programs and services to the arts and cultural community and creative businesses.We have also created an active social media presence through Twitter and Facebook.

With a $25,000 planning grant from the National Endowment for the Arts matched by funds from the William Penn Foundation, we have partnered with The Reinvestment Fund and Social Impact of the Arts Project at the University of Pennsylvania to create a creative assets mapping database. This initiative is a comprehensive effort to identify and promote arts, culture and creative assets in Philadelphia. It will also be an ongoing resource and tool for asset-based community and economic development.

The Mayor’s Cultural Advisory Council, a diverse group of cultural, creative business and philanthropic leaders have continued their work through FY11 crafting and finalizing a comprehensive Vision and Plan for the Office. The Office expects to publish this plan within the next few months.

In May, we will announce a $300,000 fund that will support artists, nonprofit arts and culture organizations and for-profit creative businesses through capital facility investments that produce specific benefits for low- and moderate-income neighborhoods or create or retain jobs. The goals of the program are to strengthen the relationships between the creative industries and their neighborhoods, and to foster organizational growth and job creation, asset development and economic efficiencies within the creative sector.

Since 1992, Art In City Hall has presented exhibitions that showcase contemporary artwork by professional and emerging Philadelphia visual artists. “Emerging” artists include community based art from Philadelphia’s public schools, community nonprofits, and other city agencies, including an annual exhibition highlighting art from City of Philadelphia employees and family members. Art in City Hall has approximately four juried professional exhibitions in hallway display cases and four to five community exhibitions along the fifth floor north corridor each year. In FY11, a particularly notable exhibition featured art by Philadelphia inmates and ex-offenders. Currently, on the fifth floor of City Hall, BuildaBridge, a community non-profit providing assistance for families in transition, will present: My Home Is In My Heart: An Artistic Inquiry of Place, Home and Belonging by Philadelphia’s Children and in May, The Village of Arts and Humanities will celebrate its 25th anniversary with an exhibition of individual and collaborative art projects in photography, textiles and graphic design.

With the opening of our office in June of 2010, we also opened The Art Gallery in City Hall. Expanding upon the Art in City Hall program, the Office now has a comprehensive “exhibitions program,” providing even more opportunities for artists, arts organizations and community groups. To date we have had four shows in the gallery including an annual student exhibition recognizing the importance of arts education from the School District of Philadelphia. Our exhibitions that coincide with major events such as DesignPhiladelphia and the upcoming Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts send a message that City Hall is an active partner in the city-wide initiatives that are putting Philadelphia on the national and international map as a major arts destination and a world class city.

Currently there are eleven Percent for Art projects in various stages of development. These include a LED video project for the Race Street Connector on the Delaware waterfront, as well as two projects at the Philadelphia International Airport, and two at neighborhood recreation centers. Through a competitive process and with funding from the William Penn Foundation, the Office commissioned the internationally renowned artists group Futurefarmers for a project called “Soil Kitchen”, a temporary public art project timed to coincide with the 2011 National Brownfields Conference at the Convention Center. Located at 2nd and Girard, the project incorporates community involvement, naturally generated energy, local foods, the creative reuse of a Brownfield site and Brownfield mapping.

The Office played a facilitating role in major arts and cultural events such as DesignPhiladelphia, Philagrafika, Art in the Open and Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts; and in representing the creative community interests in major efforts such as Philadelphia Plan 2035, the Philadelphia Zoning Code and the Dilworth Plaza renovations.

FY12 Initiatives

The Office expects to launch several new initiatives in FY12. Under the new moniker, Creative Philadelphia, we will launch a quarterly event series that highlights topical issues that are relevant to a spectrum of artists, cultural organizations and creative businesses and provides networking opportunities for the creative community. We will release a formal creative economy strategy and specific policy and program recommendations driven by our recent Town Hall meeting and continued stakeholder engagement strategy. We will also launch our new website www.phila.gov/arts, which will streamline the services that the City provides to artists, arts organizations and creative businesses.

We will launch phase two of our Creative Assets Mapping Database Project. The results of this project will be the creation of a creative asset database, new research regarding creative and neighborhood development, and new local and national policy and investment recommendations.

We are working to secure private funds for four sculpture conservation projects - two on the Parkway and two in Fairmount Park. We will also work to restore and reinstall El Gran Teatro de la Luna, one of only three public sculptures in existence by the famed Puerto Rican artist Rafael Ferrer. Now 76 years old and the subject of a major retrospective at El Museo del Barrio in New York, the artist will work with a conservator and others to return this piece to the community. The coordination of a new permanent home for the Dilworth Memorial is also underway, due to the changes planned for Dilworth Plaza, including a new major public art component by the artist Janet Echelman. Based on the interest and anticipated success of Soil Kitchen, the Office will continue with a temporary public art project for FY12 and hopes to incorporate temporary art into Philadelphia’s public art strategy.

Our exhibition programs will continue to provide opportunities for emerging and professional artists, arts institutions, and community organizations that utilize the arts to improve the quality of life for our citizens. FY12 exhibitions will include the Philadelphia School District show; the annual employees show; the Mural Arts Program Winter Exhibition; and in coordination with the Recreation Department, the Senior Camp Exhibition - artwork from a network of Philadelphia senior centers.

In addition to the exhibitions programs at City Hall, in the Winter of FY12 the Office will introduce expanded cultural opportunities in City Hall with a performing, literary and media arts program that will bring music concerts, dance performances, spoken word and film screenings to the City Hall Courtyard in the warmer months and in the Mayor’s Reception Room and Conversation Hall in the colder months.

For a copy of the full testimony, click on this link.

Philadelphia Swings Into Spring with Jazz

2011-03-30T12:13:00.003-04:00

Philadelphia will celebrate national Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM) in April, for the first time in many years. This national celebration, sponsored by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, and also promoted by the United States Conference of Mayors, is now in its 10th anniversary year.

Recognizing this quintessentially American art form is especially appropriate for Philadelphia, which has an extraordinary legacy of leadership in jazz. Beginning with Ethel Waters, and extending to John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, Joe Venuti, Eddie Lang, Stan Getz, the Heath Brothers, Dizzie Gillespie, Sun Ra, McCoy Tyner, Grover Washington Jr, Stanley Clarke, Philadelphia has an illustrious roster of jazz greats who were either born here or lived and worked here for a significant portion of their life. Despite the demise of many of the City's historic jazz clubs, the City still has a vital, thriving jazz scene, with many venues and a strong and deep array of renowned working musicians. There is a nice succinct history of jazz in Philadelphia on the "Music of Philadelphia" page of Wikipedia.

A few months ago I organized a group of leaders in the Philadelphia jazz scene to discuss how to better support and promote this great art form. This followed a meeting with some members of the Clef Club's staff and board about how to revive its fortunes. I am grateful to Warren Oree and Gaciella D'Amelio of Lifeline Music for getting me started down this path. Working together, and with the Office of the City Representative, my colleagues in City government, we have organized a special promotion of Jazz Appreciation Month in Philadelphia.

This celebration was announced earlier this week right outside City Hall, on a chilly but sunny morning. With musical accompaniment from Warren Oree and the Arpeggio Jazz Ensemble, we announced a Citywide celebration of Jazz Appreciation Month in April, A new logo has been created (shared above), and banners have been designed that will hang in the City Hall portals, and have also been produced in poster size.

L-R: Charles Truxon, Gregory Jones, Melanie Johnson (City Representative), Gary Steuer, Warren Oree; showing off the new Jazz Appreciation Month banner designs. Warren, Charles and Gregory are the Arpeggio Jazz Ensemble.

In addition to the banners in City Hall, and the logo that will be used throughout the jazz community, we have also created a website: http://creativephl.org/jazz that has information on how to celebrate jazz, including a complete list of the Coalition members, downloadable versions of the logo, and a special Jazz Month event listings site, organized with the help with our friends at the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance and their Philly Fun Guide listings site. That special jazz listings site can be directly accessed here.

So with April beginning Friday, make your plans now for how to make jazz a part of your life this month, how you can support the art of jazz. And if you are not in Philadelphia, there are opportunities to support and experience jazz wherever you live. Here is a link to a great resource on the Smithsonian's site: it is called "112 ways to celebrate jazz".

As an aside, I have a somewhat personal connection to jazz, having been a major appreciator of the art form pretty much my entire adult life. In college at SUNY Purchase I was President of the student group charged with concert promotion and produced a jazz festival featuring the likes of Bill Evans, Elvin Jones and Betty Carter. Later, while Managing Director at the Vineyard Theatre in New York, we produced a concert series called Vintage Jazz at the Vineyard that highlighted jazz music from the 20's 30's and 40's, and featured many of the musicians from that era who were still around and playing, often paired with young proteges. That concert series was recorded and transformed into nationally broadcast radio programs. (Sadly, these radio shows, of which I think there were about 30, seem to have been lost to the mists of time. I never had the masters, and have been unable to track them down to make sure they are archived somewhere - it is a great loss, if in fact the masters are gone; most of these artists have now passed on.) Also while at the Vineyard I produced Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, a musical about the last days of Billie Holiday, that went on from its Off Broadway run to be produced all over the country. Growing up in NY, I sort of lived at clubs like the Village Vanguard, Sweet Basil, and The Blue Note. And more recently, my wife worked at Jazz at Lincoln Center for several years, during which I was a regular at their programs, including the extraordinary Essentially Ellington national high school jazz band competition.

Let's end with images of the two banners that will be "swinging" in the City Hall portals during the month of April!

Art-Reach Program Uses Art to Fight Violence - Funded by City $

2011-03-21T11:40:00.000-04:00


Art-Reach students and staff in Art Gallery at City Hall with artist Ben Volta

The past year the Philadelphia Cultural Fund (the vehicle through which the City distributes funding through a competitive peer process) for the first time ever allocated a portion of the funding to go into a new "Arts for Youth" project grant program. This new grant program, which I encouraged, allowed a group of exemplary projects using the arts to address critical challenges facing our youth to be supported. Given that the process for the next round of grants for this year will be launched soon (at a significantly reduced funding level, due to budget cuts), and that City Council is now holding budget hearings, it seemed like an opportune time to highlight one of the projects supported in 2010

Art-Reach is an organization devoted to "enriching lives by connecting underserved audiences to cultural experiences so that they may benefit from and enjoy the transformative power of the arts." Teens from the Martin Luther King Recreation Center in North Philadelphia and Wissahickon Boys and Girls Club in Germantown spent 12 weeks last fall working with professional silk screen artists to create original T-shirts with an anti-violence theme. They visited a hospital ER where they saw the devastating effects of gunshot wounds, and that led them to explore designs around the theme of the human heart (the literal, anatomical human heart, not the cartoon Valentine's Day version). Last week a group of the teens visited me at City Hall to present me with a T-shirt. They were accompanied by artist Benjamin Volta, who worked with them on this project, Michael Norris, Executive Director of Art-Reach, and other staff from the participating organizations.

It was a great opportunity for me to see this grant program in action, to meet the kids, and also to talk to them a bit about what I - and the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy - do. The kids also got to see our new show at the Art Gallery at City Hall, and learn a little but about the history of City Hall. In the photos above we are standing in front of a large work of art created by the kids and Ben Volta. One of the things I especially like about this program is that the winning designs have been mass-produced and are now on sale at the Villa stores at 1231 North Broad Street, and 5700 Germantown Avenue, or online at http://artreach.bigcartel.com. The shirts are $10 each and all the proceeds go to teen programs at these two centers. So this not just an arts program, not just an anti-violence program, but also an entrepreneurship and micro-enterprise program; the work of these students will generate business revenue that will go back into programs serving youth. The kids are also learning that art has value, and that designs can actually be sold in the marketplace. Would love to have more resources to better support programs like these. Very inspiring - this is why I do what I do...